Northport Village board authorizes $2.5 million offer on Brosnan building

After an executive session at last night’s Northport Village Board of Trustees meeting, the board, under the direction of brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield, unanimously approved a resolution to make an offer of $2.5 million for the purchase of the William J. Brosnan building from the Northport-East Northport School District. 

The approved resolution reads: “The Northport School District has advised the public that they are presently accepting offers to purchase various parcels of District Property, subject to the required approval process, and the board has determined after due deliberation that an offer should be put forth by the Village consultants to purchase the above property; as a result, the board authorizes the consultant Cushman & Wakefield to communicate an offer in the amount of 2,500,000.00 to the district, subject to any required municipal approvals and customary due diligence to purchase the property known as 158 Laurel Avenue, Northport NY.”

Before the vote was called, Northport Village Mayor Donna Koch said, “The board has determined that it’s within our best interest to put in an offer to Newmark at $2.5 million.” Cushman & Wakefield of Long Island, which was hired at the September 19 board meeting, will be representing Northport Village for the duration of this process and issuing the offer to the district’s real estate agency, Newmark.

The offer has not yet been received by the district, school officials said. 

“There are a lot of hoops and jumps that both the school district and the Village would have to go through. This is not going to be a simple process, this is going to be lengthy, it’s going to be a couple of years, I think,” Koch said. Regarding resident interest in the potential purchase of the property, the mayor said: “Everything that I’ve heard is very positive. People like the idea.”

In addition to this expected offer from the Village for the Brosnan building, four other proposals have been made public by the district, with offers ranging between $2.5 million to $8 million. The offers include “ultra luxury clustered townhouse rentals” or possibly 55-and-older luxury rentals, according to the chart posted on the district website, and would include 50 to 100 units. Both offers involve keeping the current building structure intact, with additional amenities including a lounge and workout room for one proposal, and pickleball courts, a designated BBQ area and a clubhouse for the other. 

Any sale of a school district property, including the offer from Northport Village to purchase the Brosnan building, would first have to be approved via a voter referendum by district voters. If the sale of Brosnan to the Village was moved forward by district residents, then Northport Village residents would have to approve the purchase in a separate referendum, Mayor Koch confirmed with the Journal today.

Correction: The above article was updated on Thursday, October 5, to reflect the four offers (not two) currently received by the district for the Brosnan building. There are two original offers, and two revised, available for viewing on the district website.