The Suffolk County Department of Social Services will be relocating to the former Kmart building on Route 58, if plans for the move are approved by the county legislature.
County Legislator Al Krupski said today he expects a resolution authoring a lease of a portion of the building will be approved at the legislature’s next meeting. The resolution was introduced at Tuesday’s general meeting. It will be reviewed and voted on by a legislative committee before coming back before the full body for a vote on Dec. 21, Krupski said in a phone interview.
According to the resolution, the county would occupy 38,555 square feet of the vacant 106,000-square-foot building.
The resolution authorizes the county executive to sign a 20-year lease providing for an annual base rent of $761,461 in years one through five; $837,607 in years six through 10; $921,368 in years 11-15; and $1,013,505 in years 16-20.
The Department of Social Services currently occupies 25,365 square feet of office space at 893 E. Main Street under a lease that expired Nov. 13, according to the resolution.
The county’s Space Management Steering Committee recommended the approval of the lease terms at its Oct. 28, meeting, the resolution states.
Krupski said he thinks the vacant former discount store will make a good location for DSS. “It has plenty of parking and the county bus goes by there,” Krupski said.
“About 150 or 160 people are going to be working there,” he said.
The Town of Riverhead had entered into negotiations to either lease or buy the entire building. Town officials were thinking of consolidating almost all town departments at the site, Councilman Tim Hubbard told RiverheadLOCAL in March. In addition the town would relocate the Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps headquarters there, he said. The ambulance corps has outgrown its current headquarters on Osborn Avenue, just north of Route 58.
After review and recommendation by an independent consultant, the town board decided not to pursue the site.
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