“In the 1970s, people fled the city to move to the suburbs. Today, people are abandoning the suburbs, and everyone wants to live and work in Manhattan,” said Steven Roth, a real estate visionary and chairman of Vornado Realty Trust. Few question the brilliance of Mr. Roth, yet based on a report from research firm Reis, the office marketplace in the suburbs of Long Island is sizzling. The office vacancy rate on Long Island is tied with New York City at 9.7%, the second-lowest rate in the nation.

In September 2003, a partnership of the Moinian Group, C & K Properties, and real estate investor David Werner paid $190 million to ABN Amro and the DeMatteis family for EAB Plaza, a Class A office complex with 1.1 million square feet in two buildings in the town of Hempstead. At the time, it was the highest price ever paid for an office property on Long Island.

Last Friday, the largest landowner on Long Island, NYSE-traded REIT Reckson Associates Realty, agreed to pay approximately $240 million for the site. The deal does not include an adjacent 8-acre site, which was acquired simultaneously in 2003. Reckson has an option to acquire the site prior to closing. The development is subject to a long-term ground lease with Nassau County.

EAB Plaza, built in 1984, is on Hempstead Turnpike in Uniondale, across the street from the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, home of the New York Islanders. The hockey team is owned by Charles Wang, founder of Computer Associates. Mr. Wang plans to spend $200 million to overhaul the Coliseum, increasing its capacity and adding luxury boxes.

On a 77-acre plot owned by Nassau County next to the Coliseum, Mr. Wang intends to build an $800 million, 60-story office building, the Great Lighthouse, which will be the tallest building on Long Island. It will have a five star, 500-room hotel beneath a 10,000-square-foot observation deck. He plans to build 12 other buildings that will house luxury condominiums, rental apartments, a conference center, an exhibition hall, a 500-seat amphitheater, skating rinks, basketball and volleyball courts, restaurants, and shops.

Hempstead, the Nassau County Legislature, and New York State must first approve the sale of the land for the massive Lighthouse project, which may be the largest remaining site of its size in Nassau County. One of the major points of contention is that the county is planning to sell the site to Mr. Wang without open bidding, a departure from its past handling of public property sales.

One of the biggest obstacles to the success of the project is the lack of local infrastructure, especially mass transportation. Ideally, there would be a monorail or local access to the Long Island Railroad.

Last month, New Jersey-based REIT Mack Cali sold its last two remaining office properties in Nassau County. A 240,000-square-foot office building at 600 Community Drive in North Hills, and a 56,000-square-foot building at 11 Shore Rd. in Manhasset were sold for $72.5 million.

In June, Apollo Real Estate Advisors acquired its third major development on Long Island. It paid $30 million to JP Morgan Chase for three office buildings with a total of 425,000 square feet adjacent to the Hicksville stop on the Long Island Railroad, at 50, 100, and 110 Duffy Ave. The buildings previously housed JPMorgan Chase credit operations.

In March, Houlihan Parnes Realtors and CLK Management bought the Tilles family portfolio on Long Island, which consists of more than 2.1 million square feet in 43 buildings, including two development sites in two contiguous office parks in Woodbury. The Crossways Office Park has 31 buildings with a total of 1.5 million square feet, and Gateways Office Park has 12 buildings with 700,000 square feet. UBS provided the partnership with approximately $300 million in acquisition funding.

In January, Houlihan Parnes bought eight office buildings with 250,000 square feet of space in Great Neck and Roslyn from Jobco Realty & Equity. Houlihan Parnes’s first acquisition was 585 Stewart Ave. in Garden City, adjacent to Roosevelt Field, in the fall of 2004.

Broadway Real Estate Partners and Investcorp have retained Cushman & Wakefield to market an office building at 1979 Marcus Ave. in Lake Success and the Huntington Quadrangle in Melville. Sources said the properties should fetch more than $110 million.

Reckson expects to complete a 277,000-square-foot office building in Reckson Executive Park at 58 South Service Road off the LIE in Melville by the end of the year.

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Steven Roth may be of the opinion that people are abandoning the suburbs of Long Island, yet many, including this columnist, beg to differ.

“Our acquisitions are in the best locations, on the Long Island Expressway as well as the Seaford Oyster Bay, offering great opportunities to add and create value in already superior locations,” said James Houlihan, a principal at Houlihan Parnes Realty, one of the most active buyers in Long Island over the past year. “The demographics, excellent transportation, highly skilled workforce in a choice neighborhood are all there.”

Paul Amoruso, managing partner of Oxford & Simpson Realty, said: “Finally Long Island is maturing, resulting in Class A office properties becoming owned by institutional owners, allowing properties to finally achieve rents similar to markets including Greenwich, Conn., and Short Hills, N.J. There is a lack of any available land for new development of office property in Nassau County.”

The vice president at Blumenfeld Development Group, Brad Blumenfeld, said: “Long Island has everything going for it: an educated workforce, a diverse economic base, great demographics, a fantastic quality of life, and a close proximity to New York City.”

“The Long Island economy appears to be very healthy, and the diversity of the business community and its apparent self-sufficiency bodes well long-term for the office-leasing market,” said Frank Zuckerbrot, president of Shalom & Zuckerbrot Realty Services.

“The Long Island office market continues to demonstrate a good balance between supply and demand,” he said.

All indicators suggest the office marketplace in Long Island is on the upswing and growing.

Mr. Stoler is a television broadcaster and vice president at First American Title Insurance Company of New York. He can be reached at mstoler@firstam.com.