The former Sears building in Hicksville has been leased to two tenants, a veterinary laboratory and a trade school, according to an update from the Town of Oyster Bay.
Steel Equities, which purchased the property in 2023, has leased a large portion of the basement and a small portion of the ground floor in the rear of the building to Antech Diagnostics, a veterinary laboratory that will use the area to do testing on samples and for office space.
The town said there will be no sampling at the location.
Steel Equities also leased space to Lincoln Technical Institute, a New Jersey-based vocational school that offers diplomas, degrees and certificate programs. It marks their second campus in the area, following the school’s location in Queens.
The property at 195 North Broadway in Hicksville, which included a two-story, 262,101-square-foot department store and a 45,615-square-foot auto center both bearing the Sears name, has been vacant since 2018, when the company filed for bankruptcy.
Sears had been in Hicksville since 1964.
Steel Equities had purchased the site from Sertiage Growth Properties after a failed attempt to create a mixed-use development at the 26.4-acre site.
The redevelopment would have created a “Heritage Village,” which would have featured 425 rental apartments, retail and office space, restaurants, a grocery store, cinema, fitness center and food-service kiosks. The plan also included the spaces currently occupied by TD Bank and Chipotle, as well as five acres of green space.
The town held a public hearing on the village in September 2020, which had been delayed for several months. Sertiage canceled its plan in 2022.
