Real LI

While home building on Long Island is taking a rest during the mortgage crisis, commercial building seems to be alive and well.

“It’s hard to explain that, except there are certain businesses that are doing well,” said David Scro, president of Melville-based Country View Properties, a residential builder.

The advice for stock investors to diversify seems to work for local home builders also as office space leasing rates remain stable and businesses try to start up here to support family lifestyles.

Scro, a second-generation builder, has been immersed in constructing business space to put food on his table.

“I wish I started it a while ago,” he said.

Once, Scro put up 50 to 60 homes a year, but this year, he’s barely dabbled in the residential field.

He’s been tied to an 8-acre plot he bought four years ago in Nesconset. Scro recently finished developing 60,000 square feet of business space -- a 39,000-sq-foot New York Sports Club, a swimming safety school and a developmental disabilities training center. He expects to get permission to build 30,000 square feet more for a child daycare center and medical offices.

The commercial project has cost him about $9 million so far and probably won’t be as lucrative as raising dozens of homes.

But at least it’s a job until the housing market recovers, Scro said: “It will give us an income stream so we’ll survive the downturn.”

As U.S. Commerce Department data show, construction starts for one-family homes are at a 17-year low, Newsday reported this week.