A New York state company, Aviation Ground Equipment Corp., has bought a Lance Drive building once occupied by Bell Optical Laboratories.

The president of the Freeport, N.Y.-based company, Barry Spilka, told the Dayton Daily News last month that he was eyeing the building. The purchase happened Friday, according to public records.

The company will make airport and hangar equipment at the 25,000-square-foot Kettering building for defense and government aviation uses.

David Dickinson, with NAI Dayton, represented Aviation Ground Equipment in the purchase while David Tobeson, of Cassidy Turley, represented Essilor Corp., owner of Bell Optical.

Spilka has said he wants to move 10 employees to Kettering initially. Some of the company’s design team also may move to Kettering, and there is potential for growth in the number of its employees there, Spilka said.

The business makes aircraft air conditioners, ground power units, light towers and more. It also distributes equipment for commercial uses.

The purchase went forward even though the company is dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which slammed into the Northeast in the last few days of October. At least 121 people were killed in the storm, which caused an estimated $50 billion in property damage and economic losses, Reuters news service has reported.

Freeport is on southern Long Island about 30 miles east of New York City.

“We’ve had four and one-half feet of water here in our facilities,” Spilka said Monday. “We’re a bit inundated with issues right now.”

According to Montgomery County records, Bell Optical sold the building to Spilka’s B&B Holdings for $450,000.

The company opened a small research and development facility in Miamisburg at 3720 Benner Road about two years ago. That operation will be moved to the Kettering site, Spilka said.