Real LI

The East Hills-based Jewish Community Center businessman Sid Jacobson helped found more than 30 years ago has come a long way since, now running health, educational and cultural programs at several Long Island facilities.

But the late Jacobson, the founder also in 1941 of the small Sid Tool Co. in Brooklyn that is now known as MSC Direct Co. in Melville — a tool distributor that is Long Island’s 10th-largest company — might have been surprised by the latest move by the JCC that bears his name.

The Sid Jacobson JCC said it plans to acquire and operate the Robin Hood Country Day School in Brookville, both organizations announced earlier this week.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

In a news release, Sid Jacobson JCC said that Robin Hood owners/directors Laurie Roberts Karol and Kathie Roberts Lieberman, will remain at the school, which has been owned and operated by the Roberts family for the past 51 years. The school property is on 15 wooded acres in Brookville.

Susan Bender, Sid Jacobson’s executive director, said in a statement that “The philosophy of Robin Hood Country Day School is very similar to that” of the JCC. “We both believe in providing quality and recognized methods in the programs we provide to the children, families and individuals we serve. We look forward to working with them and their team as we move forward.”

--James Bernstein

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.

Hotelier-to-the-hip Andre Balazs tells Crainsnewyork.com that he is close to a deal to sell four of his hotel properties to an unidentified buyer. He’ll use the proceeds, he tells Crain’s, to reinvest in additional hotels.

His company, Andre Balazs Properties, will continue to operate Hotel QT in Manhattan, and three Standard Hotels in Los Angeles, Hollywood and Miami after they are sold to the investor.

Among the other properties he owns which are not for sale are the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, and here on Long Island, the Sunset Beach on Shelter Island's Shore Road.

Where will Balazs's next investment be? Earlier this summer, when questioned by Newsday, a representative of Balazs denied the rumor that he would be adding Shelter Island’s Chequit Inn to his hotel portfolio. At the time, listing agent Tony Cerio of Brown Harris Stevens also denied the rumor.

The Chequit Inn, built in 1872, is still currently listed on the Brown Harris Stevens Web site for $6 million. The one-acre property includes three buildings, water views and an on-site antiques shop, just two blocks from the North Ferry.

Balazs, who once had a romantic relationship with actress Uma Thurman, owns a vacation home on Shelter Island close to Itzhak Perlman’s summer music camp.

Apparently, there's enough year-round activity to justify the move, as Newsday has reported. The company denies, however, that it is pro-development. Read Ellen Yan's full story here.