Leviton has left the building

From the Times Ledger:

Leviton Manufacturing Co., the largest privately held producer of electrical wiring equipment in North America, has moved its headquarters from the Little Neck site where it operated for 36 years to a new locale in Long Island, a spokeswoman for the company said.

The company, which had been at 59-25 Little Neck Pkwy. since 1973, moved its 400 employees from its Queens site to a new headquarters in Melville, L.I., June 15, said Pamela Winikoff, manager of corporate public relations. No jobs were lost in the transfer, she said.

The company, the largest North American manufacturer of electrical wiring equipment, was originally formed to produce mantle tips for gas lighting and in 1910 it converted to the production of pull-chain lamp holders designed for Thomas Edison’s new light bulbs. It now produces light sockets, switches and outlets, dimmers, wire, power cables, power cords, wall plates and other electrical products.

Dan Andrews, spokesman for Borough President Helen Marshall, said he thought it was unfortunate such a large manufacturer left the borough.

“The city has tax incentive programs to try to keep businesses here and help them expand,” he said. “A problem is that a lot of them don’t know about the programs and we’ve had companies move out of the borough because they didn’t know how to access the programs.”