Politics & Government

Forest Labs Submits Plans for Commack Expansion

Hauppauge-based pharmaceutical company seeks variance from Town of Smithtown to expand its Commack Road location.

Forest Laboratories has submitted plans to the Town of Smithtown to add more than 30,000 square feet to its Commack location. 

Forest Laboratories, a Hauppauge-based pharmaceutical manufacturing company, will have a public hearing before Smithtown's Zoning Board of Appeals at 7 p.m. Tuesday to seek building variances to add a second floor onto its 500 Commack Road location. 

In plans submitted to Smithtown's Planning Department on Jan. 20, Forest Labs has requested multiple variances to build a 32,600-square-foot expansion. The company states the expansion and renovations are for "new building functions such as laboratories, clinical packaging, data center, office and amenities." 

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The pharmaceutical company also hopes to complete several renovations including a new 430-stall parking lot, expanding their sanitary and stormwater drainage, and wastewater treament.  

In order to add a second floor, Forest Labs hopes town officials will give it permission to increase its maximum building height from 35 feet to 43 feet for skylights and a cooling tower, despite being adjaceent to several residential homes. It also seeks an area variance to build its new parking lot less than 100 feet from the residential homes. 

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Frank Murdolo, spokesman for Forest Laboratories, did not respond immediately to phone calls on Monday.

On the variance application, Forest Labs reports that "the requested variances are not substantial because none of them will result in any signficant alteration of the property, or for that matter, any condition that will adverse impact the users of the site or any adjacent property owners."

The company claims the expansion, once completed, will bring an additional 410 employees to its Commack location. It is not clear whether these are new employees or transfers from one of its nearby locations. 

The public hearing on these plans will be held 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Eugene Canntaro Senior Citizen Cente


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