Helen Keller Services for the Blind has signed a lease for a 14,978 square-foot space in Plainview after selling its six-story Hempstead building last year, according to the organization’s realtor.
Ralph Perna of Schacker Realty, who represented the nonprofit in the lease, said the 10-year agreement at 303 Sunnyside Blvd. was signed in January.
Perna said Helen Keller Services plans to use the space as a preschool facility.
The nonprofit also agreed to a lease for a 20,000-square-foot space in Islandia for another preschool center at 11 Oval Drive, Perna said. Both the Plainview and Island locations are in the process of submitting applications for special use permits to the Town of Oyster Bay and Village of Islandia, respectively, and expect to be operating later this year, he said.
‘It has a functional use and adds a lot of value to the community,” Perna said about the two centers.
Melville-based Peconic Equities is leasing the space to Helen Keller Services after previously purchasing the 76,488-square-foot building for $12.05 million in 2024.
The single-story building sits on five acres of land just off the Long Island Expressway and Northern State Parkway. Corey Gluckstal, a managing partner at Peconic Equities, said on LinkedIn that he was “excited to get this asset leased up” after the 2024 acquisition.
Peconic Equities then invested millions of dollars in renovating the building, according to another LinkedIn post.
Helen Keller Services previously had its headquarters at 1 Helen Keller Way in Hempstead, and had been there since the non-profit organization was founded in 1978. In 2025, the organization sold its Hempstead office to the Village of Hempstead for $8.9 million.
The center was comprised of six stories and 72,000 square feet of space.
The Hempstead location served as a “central location for all Nassau County services,” and it offered rehabilitation services, a low vision clinic, teen and transition services, an adaptive living program for seniors, medicaid services and services for people with disabilities, according to the organization’s website.
Helen Keller Services also has offices in Brooklyn and Islandia and the National Center in Port Washington.
