Cohen: A Go-Getter In Suffolk Real Estate

As Seen in Long Island Business News August 5, 1991
Richie Cohen deals in information. He’s on the phone six to seven hours a day, including the time spent in his car commuting from Woodmere to his real estate brokerage office at the edge of Hauppauge’s prime industrial parks – Cohen’s area of expertise.

The small office at 685 Old Willets Path bustles with activity as Cohen, 38, has closed on more than 800,000 sq ft in the past 16 months since he went into business for himself.

Cohen does business as Ashlind Properties, a name derived by combining parts of his two daughters’ names. “My wife and I thought it would bring us luck,” he says. Ashlind’s two most recent deals, the sale of a 200,000-sq-ft building to Raleigh, NC-based PepCom Industries Inc, and also a new warehouse space for ELM Freight Handlers Inc in Deer Park, brought congratulations from others in the brokerage community.

The Pepsi facility, at 550 New Horizons Blvd, is a project of the Babylon Town Industrial Development Agency. Estimating conservatively, the Pep Com transaction will create 250 new jobs over the next three years, according to Michael Bernard, Executive Director of the Babylon IDA. Bernard praises Cohen for the professionalism he showed throughout the many months it took to bring the deal together. “He really focused his time and attention,” says Bernard. “It meant a lot for the town.”

Attention to details and knowledge of the market are two things Cohen prides himself on. “He has one hell of a follow-up,” says Tom Grant, VP, Operations, for PepCom, parent company of the Pepsi-Cola bottling operations in Garden City and Patchogue. “He doesn’t let one thing fall through the cracks.”

The search for the building took more than a year, and at one point PepCom had decided to build, but changed direction when Cohen found an existing building. “There was no financial motive for Richie Cohen; he gained nothing,” Grant says. “He made sure the buyer was fully aware of things in the marketplace that would work. He knows the market, and he knows people. You go to him like a person using the library.”

Cohen formed Ashlind Properties on March 26, 1990, undeterred by an uncertain economy and a real estate market that had been slowing down since the spring of 1989. He thinks the reason he has succeeded so far is his aggressive, no-nonsense approach. A key part of knowing the market is knowing the landlords and their needs in order to make the necessary matches, and knowing available property early, as well as keeping an eye out for competing property.

“Nobody knows the market here like I do,” Cohen says. He specializes in commercial and industrial properties in Hauppauge, Deer Park, Brentwood, Bohemia and Ronkonkoma, although he will devote weeks, literally, to learning a market in Nassau County. He recently concluded a deal in Syosset for New Breed Corp (Kearny, NJ). The transaction involved a lease for 133,000 sq ft on Michael Dr.

Another key point is “always doing right by my customers,” Cohen says. “I will do everything to help them, not hurt them.” And who exactly are a real estate broker’s customers? They’re not the same as clients, who pay the commissions. The customers are the people who buy or lease the space, and without them there would be no commissions. Cohen’s philosophy includes educating them sometimes steering customers away from deals that don’t fit their needs,as he did for Louis DeJoy, owner of the large New Breed Corp trucking firm. “He’s sold industrial property for me and has put me in three different warehouses,” DeJoy says, “and he’s also told me to back out of deals when they weren’t right. I’ve known him six or seven years, and I’d recommend him highly.” New Breed uses 850,000 sq ft of space in NY and New Jersey. Part of doing right by customers is keeping faith with Their confidential matters. For instance, New Breed is a direct competitor of ELM Freight Handlers, another Ashlind customer. “You can’t divulge anything, or neither one will trust you,” Cohen says.

Bill Conboy, President of ELM, a public warehouse company that recently purchased a building in Deer Park for almost $4-M says “Cohen always tries to make the best deal for both parties; he doesn’t play favorites.” Conboy had leased property in the past but when he bought a building this past spring through Cohen, he said, “as a buyer with limited real estate knowledge, it was reassuring to know that his guidance and expertise would help me make the right decisions.” Another customer, Thomas McGarry, President of Pro-Tek Safety Seals (Hauppauge), appreciates the way Cohen educated him in the real estate market, listing points on which to negotiate, and advising him on how and when. “He helped me negotiate the best deal for my company,” he said, “not the best deal for Richie.”

Despite being a one-man operation. Cohen has extensive contacts, which allows him to provide his customers with reliable information on local trends, property value and even the environmental impact of working on LI. His we11-rounded service includes a network of top-rated architects, engineers and town planners, all of whom are essential for structuring a sound deal. “Relationships are key,” Cohen says, even as a town IDA director calls him from a car phone. “We have these connections, and we’ve earned them.”

One client, Tide-Rider Inc, an importer of toys and sporting goods who sold an industrial building through Ashlind and relocated his business to California, was initially leery of working with a one man operation. In fact, Tide-Rider President James T Smith was so nervous that he got a clause letting him out of the agreement in case Richie Cohen died or became disabled. Yet he stayed with Ashlind and was glad he did. “You were aware of clients who were interested in our building from day one, while the larger brokers took weeks to identify those same clients,” he told Cohen after the deal closed.

Not surprisingly, Cohen has no immediate plans to grow larger. “I just want to continue giving good service,” he says. And he enjoys competing against large firms with ten to 30 salespeople.

Besides, he likes his informal office, and its location, just a short distance from Motor Pkwy and the LI Expressway. “I get walk-in traffic. That’s unheard of, in my business.” Industrial owners and users love to drop in to grab a cup of coffee and discuss the market. Cohen himself has a landlord: Walter Gross, developer and owner of the low vacancy Vanderbilt Industrial Park, nearby. “I’ve known Richie Cohen as long as he’s been in business,” Gross says. “He’s a very astute broker; honest, reliable.”

Another of the largest developers in the Hauppauge area, Gerald Wolkoff, who owns Heartland Executive Park and is now building the 300-acre Heartland Business Center in Edgewood, calls Richie Cohen “one of the more knowledgeable brokers in Suffolk County – a go-getter.”

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