Hampton Business District Welcomes Tate’s Bake Shop
Tate’s Bake Shop, the national cookie brand based on the East End, is the newest tenant of Rechler Equity Partners’ business and technology park in Westhampton, the Hampton Business District.
Tate’s will join AC Lighting & Electrical Supplies and Carrier Enterprise Northeast at 220 Roger’s Way, the first of nine buildings planned at the site. The building is 60,000 square feet, of which Tate’s is leasing 37,141 for warehouse and distribution space and corporate offices. The new lease brings 220 Roger’s Way, which was completed in January, up to 85% occupancy and leaves just one unit left.
Tate’s manufacturing operations are staying put in East Moriches, and its retail shop is staying in Southampton Village. This new facility in Westhampton is intended to help Tate’s, which was sold last year to private equity firm Riverside Company, expand its wholesale business.
Tate’s Bake Shop CEO Maura Mottles says the new location meets the company’s needs while reflecting Tate’s heritage as a local brand.
“I am thrilled that Tate’s Bake Shop is expanding within Southampton Township,” Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst says. “Before construction of the Hampton Business District, Tate’s was not able to find a state-of-the-art space in Southampton that was large enough to meet its needs. This is exactly what we anticipated with the Hampton Business District—that it would create jobs and promote economic development.”
Ted Trias, the Rechler Equity Partners director of acquisitions & leasing, negotiated the lease.
“It’s an exciting period at the Hampton Business District and everyone at Rechler Equity Partners joins me in welcoming such a beloved and iconic Long Island institution as Tate’s Bake Shop,” says managing partner Mitchell Rechler. Rechler notes that it took less than eight months from the completion of 220 Roger’s Way to get this close to full occupancy. “We’re very happy that it’s moving in the right direction right from the get-go,” he says of the Hampton Business District, adding that the success is owed to the quality of the product.
“There are a few different things that make it special,” according to Rechler. Namely, “the fact that the East End really does not have any Class A office or warehouse type of building.” Class A buildings—the highest classification for office buildings—have high-quality construction, ample parking, a favorable location, state-of-the-art systems and more desirable traits that attract premier tenants. And from a design standpoint, Rechler says, the Hampton Business District’s architecture is contextual to the East End.
Rechler Equity Partners is now moving forward with the construction of two more buildings, a 23,000-square-foot single-story office building and a 68,000-square-foot Class A showroom warehouse, like 220 Roger’s Way. Rechler says the buildings will be ready in late spring of 2016. Farther down the road, plans call for a restaurant and a 145-room hotel. When all nine buildings are completed, the facilities at the Hampton Business District will total 440,000 square feet.
The Hampton Business District is located at Francis S. Gabreski Airport, a 1,451-acre county-owned airport. Five years ago, after a couple decades of discussions between Suffolk County, Southampton Town and local residents about what to do with underutilized space, Rechler Equity Partners, the largest owner of commercial real estate on Long Island, was awarded a bid to construct and manage a business park there.
Rechler says that, given the home construction market is so active on the East End, he foresees future tenants that include showrooms for general contractors building houses and homeowners seeking to renovate. These would complement AC, which is a vendor to electricians and other tradesman, and Carrier, a residential and commercial heating, ventilation and air conditioning supplier.