Much has changed since Ralph Perna entered the local industrial real estate market in November 1975. “The Hauppauge Industrial Park had an antenna farm on Motor Parkway, and Ronkonkoma was the end of the world,” said Perna. “Today, the Hauppauge Industrial Park is the largest on the East Coast.” Perna was involved in many of the developments along Commerce Drive, Adams Avenue and Wireless Boulevard during the “Roaring 80’s,” when spec warehouse construction was done by only a few companies. In 1984, Perna became “the first industrial real estate broker to have my own computer,” he said.
Perna, who joined Schacker Realty in Melville in 2021, formerly spent two decades at Newmark’s Long Island office, where he was executive managing director. Previously, he was a partner at Island Realty, which he and Jack O’Connor sold to Grubb & Ellis in 1999.
Perna has successfully completed transactions with Forest Laboratories and Medical Action Industries, in addition to completing transactions involving 200,000- and 300,000-square-foot facilities for Long Island Industrial, a 250,000-square-foot build-to-suit on 30 acres for Intercounty Appliance Service and a 250,000-square-foot facility for Invagen Pharma. Additional representation has included Suffolk Transportation Services for all of its Long Island real estate requirements, We Transport and Sunrise Medical Laboratories, a division of Sonic Care International, for a new corporate headquarters.
Perna’s college education to become a physical education teacher was interrupted by the last draft lottery in 1972, with no college deferments, and he served in the U.S. Navy. But his education “includes a Ph.D. from the University of Hard Knocks,” he said.