A vacant three-story office building that medical supply giant Henry Schein once called home is now in contract to be sold to Jericho-based B2K Development, with plans for the 11-acre Melville parcel still very much up in the air. The purchase price for 80 Baylis Road was not disclosed, and B2K has not yet decided whether the site will become for-sale housing, rental apartments, an assisted living facility, or some combination of the three.
A Long-Vacant Office Tower Changes Hands
B2K Development is in contract to purchase 80 Baylis Road from The We're Group, according to The Real Deal. The property is a 186,732-square-foot, three-story Class A office building built in 1978 on a 10.84-acre lot, with 746 parking spaces and LEED Silver certification, according to CommercialCafe. Henry Schein, one of Long Island's largest public companies and a medical supply distributor, began moving out of the roughly 180,000-square-foot building in 2022 as it consolidated operations at a 105,000-square-foot campus at 135 Duryea Road, per the same Real Deal report.
That consolidation followed years of public investment in Schein's Melville presence. The Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency awarded the company $3.1 million in tax incentives in exchange for a commitment to keep 1,223 local jobs and invest $15 million in its corporate campus, according to Suffolk County IDA records.
Still No Application, Still No Decision
B2K intends to redevelop the 80 Baylis Road parcel into a mixed-use complex using Huntington's Melville Town Center Overlay District, but the company has not submitted an application to the town's planning department and has not settled on the best use for the site, per The Real Deal's reporting. Potential uses under consideration include for-sale housing, rental housing, and an assisted living facility. The overlay district itself was created in December 2024 with the stated goal of building a walkable downtown out of Melville's aging office parks, and it caps residential development at 1,500 total units, requiring a mandatory pause after every 400 unit submissions to assess impacts on schools, traffic, and emergency services, according to the Half Hollow Hills Central School District.
Town of Huntington Supervisor Ed Smyth clarified in August that the 400-unit pause functions as an administrative brake on how quickly applications move through review, rather than a requirement that previously approved housing be fully built and occupied before new projects can proceed, Newsday reported. That distinction matters as multiple developers compete for a finite pool of allocations under the district's 1,500-unit ceiling.
Homeownership Sank a Previous Deal
B2K is not the first suitor for 80 Baylis Road. A prior sale agreement with Mill Creek Residential collapsed after that developer sought to build exclusively rental units, while town officials insisted on a mix that included for-sale homes, according to USA News. That standoff underscores the tension B2K will likely face as it weighs its own options for the site.
B2K brings a specific pedigree to that decision. The firm was founded in 2022 by former principals of the Engel Burman Group, the developers behind The Bristal Assisted Living network, which operates 24 senior living facilities across Long Island, Manhattan, Westchester, and New Jersey, Newsday's business desk has reported. That background helps explain why assisted living remains on the table alongside more conventional housing at 80 Baylis Road.
Crowded Competition Under the Overlay District
B2K's Melville plans would join two projects already working through Huntington's review process. In April, the Town Board approved Steel Equities' $130 million Melville Crossing at 75 Maxess Road, the district's first approved project, calling for 110 condominium units and 290 apartments across 17 acres of former light-industrial land, with 20 percent of units set aside as affordable housing for households earning up to 80% of Area Median Income. Hoodline previously covered Melville Crossing's town approval as neighbors raised concerns.
Terwilliger & Bartone's proposed $85 million Cornerstone Melville at 115 Baylis Road represents the second major project moving through the district, with 168 luxury rental and for-sale residences, 20 percent of units set aside for workforce housing, and 20,000 square feet of retail and office space. The Huntington Town Board has already held a hearing on that project, according to Newsday.
Melville's Broader Office Glut
The push to convert vacant office towers into housing reflects deeper trouble in Melville's commercial real estate market. Office vacancy along the corridor reached 20.08 percent through 2025, well above New York State's 18.11 percent average, pushing landlords to drop asking rents to $26.84 per square foot, according to the Long Island Commercial Data Report. That glut has made aging, half-empty office parks like the former Henry Schein headquarters increasingly attractive targets for residential conversion.
B2K's Other Suffolk County Fight
Melville is not the only Suffolk County site where B2K is pursuing redevelopment. The firm is also planning a project on the 49-acre Flowerfield Fairgrounds in St. James, which would include medical offices, an assisted living facility, and a hotel. That proposal has drawn opposition from local residents and officials, including Suffolk Legislator Steven Englebright, who has raised environmental concerns tied to increased flooding. Elsewhere, opposition to the Flowerfield plan has centered on a proposed 100,000-gallon-per-day sewage treatment facility and the potential for nitrogen runoff into Stony Brook Harbor, per The Real Deal's earlier coverage of that deal.
