Listen to this articleNYU Langone is considering acquiring Canon U.S.A.’s headquarters in Melville, according to real estate industry sources.
The hospital system recently ordered an appraisal of the 700,000-square-foot property on 52 acres off the Long Island Expressway, where Canon has been located since early in 2013, sources say.
NYU Langone is in the midst of an expansion of its Long Island footprint and a deal to develop a $3 billion medical center on the campus of Nassau County Community College is now on hold, according to a statement from Nassau Executive Bruce Blakeman that was released on Friday.
The hospital system and the college agreed to “pause further negotiations as a result of external factors,” according to the Blakeman statement.
Canon has been downsizing its workforce and much of its Melville campus is empty, with many employees working remotely three days a week, so brokers say the company doesn’t need as much office space.
Canon officials could not be reached for comment.
The imaging giant would take a huge loss if it sold the Melville property, as it paid $103 million for the land alone when Canon bought the former pumpkin farm from the Tilles family in 2006, and the value of office real estate here has declined significantly in the last couple of years. Canon opened its first office in Manhattan in 1955 with five employees. The company moved to Woodside in 1968, and then to Lake Success in 1971, before building the Melville complex.
It’s not clear where Canon would relocate its offices, though there are options nearby at the former Capital One building on Walt Whitman Road in Melville. Capital One, which purchased the 199,000-square-foot building on 19 acres at 1307 Walt Whitman Road for $25 million in 2016, relocated its offices to Jericho.
Brokers say Canon could even return to Nassau, as the 232,000-square-foot Dealertrack office building in North Hills is another option, as that building has been largely empty since the COVID-19 pandemic forced Dealertrack employees to work remotely.
