Blue Sea Educational Consulting buys Kings Park building for its new headquarters

Smithtown-based education company Blue Sea Educational Consulting will move its offices to Kings Park after buying a new headquarters.

Blue Sea, which matches school districts with professionals that provide services for students with special needs, will move its roughly 35 employees into its new offices at 263-265 Indian Head Rd. by the end of October, said company president Nicholas Mortati.

The company purchased the building for $2.7 million in August, said Tom Bigansky, owner of North Village Realty, who brokered with his colleague Alex Sobel. The purchase comes as more local businesses look to buy their own space rather than rent, Sobel said. 

Blue Sea owns its Smithtown offices at 1038 Jericho Tpke., which it purchased in 2022 for a little under $1 million, according to property records. But the company, which Mortati started in 2010 from his home in Huntington, needed more space, Mortati said.

“Blue Sea has been expanding over the last several years,” Mortati said, adding they outgrew their building. 

Mortati said Blue Sea contracts with more than 85 school districts on Long Island, placing providers that can offer occupational, physical, speech and behavior therapy and other services to students with special needs. He plans to continue to grow his company, which will occupy the basement and top floor of the building, and is considering selling the Smithtown property.

The Indian Head Road building also holds a photography studio and a physical therapy provider.

The building was once an eyesore for the Kings Park community. For more than a decade, the property sat half-built along the highway, and the Smithtown Town Building Department deemed it unsafe in 2014 and put pressure on the then-owner to complete it, Newsday reported. By 2016, the building’s facade was nearly finished, according to images of the property from the time.

The company 153 Cambridge Dr LLC sold the building to Blue Sea, according to property records. Gerald Wood, a minority owner of 153 Cambridge Dr LLC, declined to comment on the sale.

Mortati decided to purchase the Kings Park building so the company wouldn’t have any unexpected property costs, like a rent hike, and so Blue Sea could renovate its new offices.

“We wanted the flexibility to tailor the workspace to our needs, and we figured owning our own space would give us that opportunity,” Mortati said.

Other Long Island companies — big and small — have also put down cash to own their own buildings. Late last year, North Bellport-based Integrated Structures and Hauppauge-based clothing manufacturer Royal Apparel both bought new warehouses to expand their operations, Newsday reported. And in July, the Long Island Power Authority shared plans to buy an office building in Melville to save on costs.

“It's a growing trend that more users are looking to pay a premium to occupy their own space,” Sobel said. “You get to control your own property and you don’t have to pay rent.”