logo

1990-2000

By the start of 1994, Grumman's staff had been reduced to 8,900. Northrop, a rival, acquired Grumman in 1994 for $2.1 billion. The new company was called Northrop Grumman. Northrop immediately set about to dispose of excess property. The 600 acres in Bethpage, now mainly empty, would have to go. Northrop Grumman opted to retain 200 acres, and sell the rest. 110 acres was owned by the Navy, and would have to be dealt with separately. Left: View of the Runway Area, 1994 Left: Post Merger Property Plans

Initial Redevelopment, 1995-2000

The year after the merger with Northrop, 1/3 of the 600 acre site was placed on the market. Placed for sale included 1.75 million square feet of warehouse space, 750,000 sq. feet of office space, 140 acres of land, including the 6,700 foot long runway closed in 1990. Office space was expected to fetch $60-$80 per sq. foot and warehouse space was $30-$50. The price of vacant land was about $300,000-$350,000 per acre, depending on proximity to roads. Some residential development was also planned, such as 300 unites of moderately priced co-op housing and a retirement complex.
The first parts to be sold off were already existing buildings and open property. The vast majority of the airstrip would remain for the rest of the 1990s. The first group to purchase land was the "Adults and Children with Learning and Developmental Disabilities." They purchased a little over 8 acres and built two 20,000 sq. foot buildings. The same year the Robert Plan insurance company purchased two existing buildings on the site totaling 237,000 sq. feet.
By 1997, the last buildings part of Grumman were sold off. All that remained to be developed was most of the airstrip and some open land. Cablevision, the cable t.v. provider on Long Island paid $23.5 million for the former headquarters building sitting on 35 acres of land on Stewart Avenue. The deal was so large the office vacancy rate on all of Long Island dropped 2%. Other buyers along Stewart Avenue included Briarcliffe College, a business and technical school. 825,000 sq. feet of manufacturing space along N.Y. Rt. 107 was bought by Steel Equities to house their operations and lease out extra space. 100 acres of vacant land were also sold to Lilly Popcorn, which built a 110,000 sq. foot popcorn facility. A hotel, Korean church, and retail store also purchased land for development. One housing development, called Sunny Lane was also built along Central Avenue. Property owned by the Navy was not yet accessible to developers.
map Left: Status of redevelopment as of 1997.
Above: Aerial photograph from 2000. The runway is no longer totally intact, and the Sunny lane housing development can be seen under construction.