Breaking News On Roosevelt Island Main Street Master Retail Leaseholder - Big Announcement To Come At Tomorrow's RIOC Board of Directors Meeting
Main Street Image From Jones Lang LaSalle
Received this message from Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Director Jonathan Kalkin
I am excited to report that I will be making a big announcement regarding the Main Street Commercial Master Lease tomorrow at the RIOC board meeting so stay tuned.Information on tomorrow's RIOC Board Meeting here and more on the Main Street Retail Master Leaseholder from earlier posts.
11 comments :
Oh Goody- now we may all get to find out what Mr. Kalking, et. al have had up their sleeves all this time...
Let me guess- giving it to Related or another developer that will make the rest of Main Street look at pre-fab and real ordinary as the Southtown Stores- I hope not-but I wouldn't be suprised at this point.
No Word on the Executive Closed Door Session yesterday about IH-though- yet...
Sick of all of this- All the Residents that really Care- get up and say NO to RIOC like we used to- we all banded together and would protest.
This Island ruined forever...
This is great to hear. No more vacant stores. Finally!
For the record: I love Roosevelt Island. The RIOC is doing a good job (better than anybody else in some aspects, worse in others - nothing new here), I am glad we are getting some more "normal" stores (hopefully!), and that the old guard of RI is slowly retiring (I will miss the entertainment aspect of it, though).
If only the MTA would start looking into fixing mass transit to/from this island, though. Improvements here would jack up our rents, though...
Looking forward to hearing some good news.
liz -- just curious, but is "prefab and ordinary" truly worse than "empty and eastern bloc"?
Liz-After a hard day at work you really make me laugh. I can only hope your comments are not serious. Southtown stores are ordinary? Would love to have any additional stores!!! Free market will dicate what business can survive on RI not everyones individaul choice.
Regarding your other comment; why don't we just say no to everything and never have any change? Would that meet your needs?
I didn't comment for laughs or negative feedback.
I commented on how I felt.
It depends on what stores will be put in and what will replace what was lost.
For the record- I love Roosevelt Island, too, my home of almost 29 years now.
Southtown Stores are no great entities- I do use Duane Reade on occasion- very expensive, don't use the Sportsbar, the Pizza place, etc.
I didn't say we need to say No to everything- just things that we, as individual residents- in the part of Main Street- where we don't have much- for years now-might get some kind of say.
Laugh all you want- I really don't care.
I am also glad you have a job right now- some of us- quite a few on this Island are out of work, consulting, working from home and have fought many battles on this Island in the years since we first came here.
Have a good night in whatever development you may be in.
We never had divisions like this...
L.
"We never had divisions like this..."
While this is not really true I have to say that with gentrification comes a lot of different wants or needs and THAT's what makes NYC such an interesting place to live. There is something for everybody and you have to build tolerance for things you don't like but many others do.
I'd really love to see a McD or a Dunkin Donuts on this island. It's good for my wallet and the kids will have new hang-out spots.
Talking about the businesses in Southtown. Did you know that the owners of Nonno's and the Bar & Grill do more for our community than all of the other businesses in Northtown together? I hope the new retail store will come to more of those kinds of generous business owners.
To the last poster " we never had divisions like this"...
I mean to the extent it has gotten to now.
There were slight divisions.
I know all about gentrification- I was born and raised in the city of New York and lived here all my life- except for College.
We came to R.I. due to gentrification in my old nabe of Yorkville some 29 years ago.
I would love to see some new stores here, too.
We lost the Bakery- on the Eastwood side- a nice, small, clean good place with good items, coffee and a place where lots of Seniors in Eastwood could go or anybody just to sit and have a cup of coffee.
We miss our great Pizza place- it was a real Family business and it had great pizza and was a nice Italian restaurant at one point.
We had a nice Chinese restaurant with a very nice dining room.
Nonno's and the Riverwalk Grill may do alot for the community- they have the means right now.
They have also done things like force Domino's pizza deliveries off the island, go up agains Trellis, etc.
The remaining businesses are struggling for their lives.
It is time to have some new stores-I wholeheartedly agree.
It would be nice to have a Dunkin Donuts or a nice Bakery-Cafe, etc.
We used to have a small Sports Bar near the Chiropractic Office.
We had a shoe repair store.
We used to have an Ice Cream parlor...
We also really miss the Liquor Store, the Florist...
Just to let you know what we had and what we lost over the years.
I think it would be terrible for a Dunkin Donuts or a McDonalds to be come the "new hangout" for kids. *cough* childhood obesity epidemic *cough*
My fantasy Roosevelt Island would have businesses that not only meet the needs of residents, but would be interesting enough so that people would stay on the subway for an additional stop to shop here -- like a really good bakery, a good fish store, a wine store with wide-ranging stock, and so forth. This is too much to expect, I know. Roosevelt Island is not the Ile St.-Louis.
Of all these, the wine store is the most needed. We used to be the only neighborhood in the city with a pizzeria. That's been rectified, as bad as Nonno's is, but unbelievably, now we are the only neighborhood in the city without a liquor store!
It's impressive that Nonno's and the grill at Riverwalk have "taken off". Clearly there is now a "critical mass" of people that can support these businesses at Riverwalk.
Still, there are at least an equal number of those on RI, and not just clustered around the buildings on Main St itself, who are not in a position to patronize full-service restaurants on a regular basis, because of lack of discretionary income, or youthful enthusiasm, or simply because of lessening constitutional "fortitude", i.e. they simply cannot eat, drink, as before, sometimes for medical reasons having to do with the onset of the inevitable physical deterioration of old age.
Thus the critical role played by the availability of beer or inexpensive baked goods picked up at the Main St deli: For those with little discretionary income, these "cheap thrills" are as vital as the actual restaurant experience at Nonno's or the grill are to those who can afford it.
That is why it is important to keep the cheap stores on Main St because people living on fixed income will only increase in number as RI continues to age in place and you can't exactly expect them to patronize Starbuck's etc.
Related could initially focus on the empty store-fronts on Main St - there are plenty of those to fill. Maybe the competition of a new store will then "inspire" the existing mom-&-pop businesses on Main St to renovate.
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