NYREJ: Extensive experience, innovative approaches and creativity propel Breslin Realty to success

Breslin Realty is a full-service, comprehensive real estate company with extensive experience in construction, land planning and development, real estate appraising, brokerage, tenant relations and negotiations, property management, and creative financing. From its founding in 1953 in West Hempstead, N.Y., the company has extended its markets beyond Long Island to Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania-growing from a single-person brokerage business to a 50-person, major real estate firm.

The real estate business requires patience and persistence, qualities identified with the Breslin team. The company has developed over 29 retail centers, and currently manages nearly eight million s/f of commercial real estate in five states. Presently, the company is busy at work on nine major developments on Long Island-including two new Wal-Mart locations, a 25,000 s/f expansion at the Hub (Hempstead), and an expansion of the Kmart shopping center in Middle Island. Breslin Realty is also acting as the developer and leasing agent for an additional one million s/f of space in the planning stage in various locations on Long Island.

Innovative Approaches

With a keen sense of the market and future trends, Breslin has purchased vacant land, improved sites, and established properties as well as created closer ties with the people and institutions that mold these markets. From its first project through today, the Breslin team continues to think outside the box, believing that developers should give consideration to the neighborhood beyond its sites and bring a project to life by adding to the area with attractive landscaping, improved road patterns, and open spaces.

Breslin Realty attributes its success to its profound knowledge of the value of real estate. This expertise has enabled the firm to make its mark in all facets of the real estate industry, consistently overcoming financing, redevelopment and new land planning obstacles. For example, Wilbur Breslin developed his first shopping center on land in Franklin Sq. purchased from a reluctant seller with a promise of free groceries for life. The seller received a weekly check for groceries from the supermarket on his property for the remainder of his life.

Breslin’s unimproved 2,000-acre tract in Yaphank, N.Y. has periodically stirred vocal emotion with its anticipated development within the Long Island Pine Barrens. Breslin chose to collaborate with local officials to plan its development. His support of environmental preservation efforts has won the recognition of state politicians, who followed up with legislation compatible with development. Redevelopment is one of the most difficult challenges facing communities today. Breslin is committed to turning functionally obsolete properties into aesthetically pleasing ones that add to the surrounding environment and help communities prosper.

Often, acquisition is the problem. The Hub at Hempstead is a complex project that serves as a national model for successful redevelopment. The Hub project brought together government officials from the federal government to local village officials by employing property condemnation as a real “development” option, assisting in relocation of residents, and supporting all phases of construction, creative financing, leasing and redevelopment to create a 230,000 s/f shopping center. The property increased its tax revenue from $1.3 million to $11.7 million by generating new revenue streams, which have helped insulate the Village of Hempstead from the economic downturn that other Long Island communities have felt since September 11, 2001.

Future Plans

Today’s deals are larger and more complex. The scope of projects has changed, and there is new technology available to construct higher quality, better designed, and more efficient buildings. Breslin believes that all the pieces must fit together.

The idea of redevelopment is to turn decaying properties into aesthetically pleasing ones. Developers must leave sites in better condition than when they found them. This is an especially difficult process for all future work in Nassau County, where rehabilitation and redevelopment projects will dominate. Suffolk County has similar problems, but also more space for land planning and future development. However, Breslin’s record is clear: partnerships with government officials and community and business leaders from the beginning planning stages of a project help reduce opposition and ameliorate community concerns along the way. These are the challenges that the Breslin team is well equipped to handle as evidenced by the confidence placed in our firm by politicians, municipalities, and financial institutions.
Breslin Realty is not resting on its laurels. Recently Breslin Realty expanded its commercial leasing services to better serve its core customer base. The company also continues to manage properties and provide financial and lending consulting services.

It is the challenge of new possibilities, potential projects on Long Island and elsewhere, and always looking toward the next “deal” which drives the Breslin team as it continues to hone its skills, and even after more than 40 years, Wilbur Breslin would have it no other way.

Management Team

Wilbur Breslin is the hands-on president of Breslin Realty, which is a privately held company. He has assembled a key group of managers, who are capable, experienced real estate people. An executive group heads up a team of directors, who are responsible for managing the core divisions of the business. They include:

Wilbur Breslin has been the president, CEO and sole shareholder of Breslin Realty Development Corp. since 1965. Active in real estate development, leasing and brokerage for over 40 years, Wilbur Breslin is an active member of the Long Island Board of Realtors, the National Association of Real Estate Boards, the National Institute of Real Estate Appraisers, the International Council of Shopping Centers, the National Association of Real Counselors and the National Association of Review Appraisers. He currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board of First American Title, and has served as the past president and chairman of the board of the Central Nassau Chapter of the Long Island Board of Realtors. He also has been a member of the board of the National Bank of New York City, Hofstra University and the Long Island Philharmonic.

Kenneth Breslin, Esq., is the vice president, brokerage, sales and development at Breslin. Joining the company in 1986, he has served as vice president since 1990 after working in the company’s brokerage department. A licensed real estate broker in New York, Kenneth Breslin also is a lawyer, who is admitted to the bar in the states of New York and New Jersey.

Robert Delavale is the director of leasing at Breslin. With over 25 years of retail real estate and leasing experience, Delavale joined in 1994. Previously, he served as VP at Garrick-Aug in Manhattan, managing the company’s Long Island division as well as a personal portfolio of retail and office properties. He is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, and directs the company’s participation in its annual conventions.

Bob Rosenberg is the director of property management. Involved in commercial real estate for more than 18 years, Rosenberg is an appraiser and a licensed real estate salesperson with broad experience in the industry. He has managed regional malls, office buildings, residential communities, and retail strip shopping centers. Additionally, he has extensive knowledge and experience in development, acquisitions, design and construction.