RIOC Will Issue Request For Proposal Seeking Master Leaseholder For Roosevelt Island Main Street Stores

Image of Roosevelt Island's Main Street from Bridge and Tunnel Club

Are the days of a cruddy and disgusting Roosevelt Island Main Street stores almost over? Will an experienced and successful private retail real estate developer eventually be taking them over from RIOC? Well, maybe.

In a post last week, I commented upon this letter published in the 1/17 Main Street WIRE written by Charlee Miller, RIOC Board Member and Chairperson of RIOC's Real Estate committee, that announced a plan to select yet another consultant to study what ails Roosevelt Island Main Street Retail Stores. According to Ms Miller:

... Once the consultant is on board, the next steps will be rolled out in phases. Residents, workers, visitors, vendors, and various other groups will be asked to participate in public workshops and focus groups. These groups will contribute to the fact-finding mission about the attitudes, needs, and interests of the community.

Some of the surveys will include the following:

* Resident shopping/dining patterns and preferences
* Worker shopping/dining patterns and preferences
* Tourist/visitor spending patterns and preferences...

I suggested that such a study was a waste of time and that RIOC should issue a Main Street Retail Master Leaseholder Request For Proposals so that a private real estate company with retail experience take over the stores as suggested by then RIRA Common Council Delegate and now RIOC Director Jonathan Kalkin in this 6/16/07 Main Street WIRE article:

Our solution is simple: We lease the commercial space to a master leaseholder who then sublets the individual storefronts.

I also asked:

Why not issue an RFP for a Master Retail leaseholder now instead of waiting months if not years for yet another study or if the governmental bureaucratic process requires a new study, do it simultaneously with the RFP.

I just received some good news from RIOC Director Jonathan Kalkin. It looks like RIOC will move forward with both a study and a Main Street Retail Master Lease RFP simultaneously. Formal approval by the Real Estate Committee and RIOC Board still needs to be accomplished but that should be done in the next several weeks.

Here is a link to the 2005 Master Lease Request For Proposals of Roosevelt Island's approximately 90,000 square feet of Main Street retail stores. (This was called an RFIP not RFP). Nothing ever came of it so it would be helpful to learn what type of responses were received, if any.

Also, the RIOC 2009-10 Proposed Budget details the Main Street retail stores annual rents and number of years remaining on lease at pages 8-9.

UPDATE - 2/13- RIOC President Steve Shane responds:

Where do you get your source to authoritatively state "RIOC will issue RFP seeking master leaseholder for RI Main Street Stores"?
While after study and analysis, the master leaseholder route may be the option chosen, there is no such determination now.
There is no conclusion reached by the Real Estate Committee. There is no conclusion recommended by the consultant. There is no authorization from the Board.

I reply:

"Rioc will issue RFP seeking master leaseholder for RI Main Street Stores" was the headline of the post. If you read the body of the post, I clearly say that such a decision still needs to be approved by the Real Estate Committee and RIOC Board.

"It looks like RIOC will move forward with both a study and a Main Street Retail Master Lease RFP simultaneously. Formal approval by the Real Estate Committee and RIOC Board still needs to be accomplished but that should be done in the next several weeks."

Mr: Shane:

While it is true that I am neither a blogger nor a journalist, if the headline reads one way and only in the fine print below do you raise the other alternatives, it might mislead some portion of your readership.
And yes, I read the entire article which leads one to wonder why the disconnect.

I think the headline is consistent with the story and I do not think the body of the story can correctly be characterized as being "in the fine print below".