Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Names Hudson Related as Main Street Master Leaseholder During April Board of Directors Meeting
Hudson Related just named as Roosevelt island Main Street Retail Master Leaseholder at RIOC Board of Directors Meeting.
More details to come.
UPDATE - 11:10 PM - The Wall Street Journal reports that RIOC:
... intends to award a 30-year lease on the state's approximately 100,000 square feet of retail to the team of Hudson Cos. and Related Cos., which would share income with the state agency....and:
... Hudson-Related would guarantee the state agency the existing revenue it collects from the property—about $900,000—and the developers would split additional income with the state, people involved in the deal said. The team would also put new money in to modernize the retail.UPDATE 4/7 8:55 PM -Here's the Press Release from RIOC"
"We're gonna do shock and awe," said David Kramer, principal at Hudson. "The retail space hasn't gotten the time and the attention and investment it needs."...
The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) announced today that it has reached an agreement with Hudson Companies Inc. and Related Companies (Hudson/Related) on a joint venture for the master lease of the retail corridor on Roosevelt Island. RIOC currently controls 34 retail stores on the island containing 100,000 square feet.RIOC's press spokesperson confirmed the financial details of the transaction reported in the Wall Street Journal above.
“This is a very exciting day for Roosevelt Island,” said RIOC President Leslie Torres. “We are looking forward to working with Hudson/Related to improve the vibrancy and appearance of the Main Street retail corridor and help increase the services and products offered to our community. Along with the construction of the Louis Kahn-designed FDR Memorial on the southern tip of the island, the interest shown in a new science center, and our new Tram, the retail transformation is another example of the exciting improvement happening on Roosevelt Island.”Roosevelt Island is a community of more than 12,000 residents and workers. Planned development will increase the housing stock by 5,500 units.“For several decades Roosevelt Island residents suffered without retail options. That is why my colleagues and I worked tirelessly to make this master lease possible. A vibrant Main Street will offer residents competitive prices, better stores, services, and job opportunities. I am proud to witness this turning point for our community and economy,” said Jonathan Kalkin, member of the RIOC Board of Directors.Hudson/Related has been active on Roosevelt Island since 1997 when it was conditionally designated to develop 2,000 units in a new neighborhood, Riverwalk, surrounding the Roosevelt Island subway station. “Since developing 6 buildings in Riverwalk and 7 retail stores, we have become huge fans of the island,” said Hudson principal David Kramer. “We are very proud of the retail we brought to Riverwalk, a mix of national tenants such as Starbucks and Duane Reade and local stores such as Fuji East, Nonno’s Focacceria and the Riverwalk Bar & Grill. More importantly, we are pleased to have brought retail to the island that truly serves the needs of the residents and we will continue that tradition as we revitalize the Main Street retail corridor. ”The Hudson/Related developers will start by sitting down with community residents, store owners and other Main Street stakeholders to solicit input about the future changes to the corridor.“We want to have a dramatic impact on how retail is experienced on Main Street,” said Related Vice President Kimberly Sherman Stamler. “We are going to be looking at upgrading the storefronts, signage, street furniture and displays. And we plan to hold all of our tenants to a very high standard with their products and displays.”Hudson/Related is expected to start work on the retail corridor by July 1. The agreement is subject to a formal approval by the RIOC Board of Directors who will vote to approve the deal at their May Board meeting.“For far too long, Roosevelt Islanders have been deprived of the vibrancy and convenience that Main Street should offer,” said Assembly Member Micah Kellner. “By implementing a master lease for Main Street’s store fronts, Islanders can finally get the kind of retail services they want and deserve.”
RIOC Director Jonathan Kalkin, chair of RIOC's Real Estate Committee, initiated the Main Street Retail Master Leaseholder proposal way back in 2007 when he was a Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) member. Mr. Kalkin should be congratulated for his vision, hard work, and perseverance in shepherding the Main Street Master Leaseholder concept through to completion despite many obstacles including the fierce opposition of the previous RIOC administration.
Thank you Mr. Kalkin for your hard work.
Now, hopefully, please, Roosevelt Island's Main Street retail corridor may sometime soon no longer look like East Berlin before the fall of the Wall or a replica of a dreary, depressing street in the former Soviet Union. It's up to you David Kramer and Hudson Related. Don't let us down.
More on the Master Leaseholder process here.
31 comments :
Care to explain with some more details why you are against Hudson Related as master leaseholder, anon from 8:05pm?
Thanks Rick for the up to the minute updates...
I am not sure what this means, it is good that the Island finally gets some new stores.
Also-kind of interesting-Hudson-Related built Riverwalk and got all kinds of tax abatements and the State-RIOC lost money on that deal.
Who knows- we will see...
No surprises here -- heard that they were only applicants ? Could that actually be true ? Well maybe the only applicants with actual, recent RI "experience" dealing w/DHCR and the many administrations of RIOC.
The huge ego of David Kramer and his allies should only be matched with quick high quality action to make Main Street and the original WIRE buildings the center of the Island once again for residents, employees, visitors and merchants.
While the other commercial 'hub' down near the subway has some value, the Cafe, Nonno's and Asian restaurant prices are high and Duane Reade has done nothing to make me shop there -- no different than any other high priced convenience store.
So, Mr. Kramer, put up, put out and show us something we can use.
Long time resident.
I totally agree with the last poster.
Long term Resident- also.
I dont' know what to say about this deal except it also seems very very shady and Jonathan Kalkin should have presented it to the Community first and RIOC before putting into play.
Unfortunately the shame lack of transparency going on here..
I thought it would change with Gov. Cuomo.
It would have been nice to see if other bidders would have come in to play for the Master lease, maybe they did, but we don't get to know...
We only live here..
I also don't see how we can build one more building here- 5,500 units on this tiny Island- this Island currently can't handle what it has now.
There are hardly any red buses in the AM, PM rush hours, none during the day...
What a mess right now.
Saddened after 29 years.
God only knows what is happening with Island House- no word on that meeting the other day - with RIOC in a closed door Executive Session on Tues.
We, in Westview have no idea of what is going on with our Complex..
no words left..
the island is becoming more beautiful and clean and only good and prosperous things are on the way....please old timers, have more of an open mind and know that progress can be a good thing and wait and see what happens before you unlease all your bile.
To the last poster- as an " old timer" quote un quote- we have the right to comment and be concerned.
It may be progress or it could be total destruction of what once was a very succesful "social experiment" that worked very well for years.
We are also talking about our homes, not just the storefronts.
This Island is too small to handle any more development- this is not an island the size of Staten Island.
I don't know how long you have lived here.
We have had problems with crowding on the Subway going back all the way to 2005, etc.
We have the right to be concerned...
"old timer" WV.
Not a single new apartment should be constructed here until there is some guarantee from the Governor, DHCR and who ever the next RIOC appointees are that our struggling infrastructure is repaired, improved, and modernized.
Our roads, sidewalks, riverbanks, bridge to Q, etc need constant monitoring and maintenance. Our MTA transit is woefully inadequate -- the Q102 bus and F trains are barely there for rush hours and when the link from the 2nd Avenue subway to our F line at 63Rd street start construction -- what are DHCR, RIOC, the MTA and others going to do to make sure we can get on or off the Island to go to and from work,school, etc. ?
So we need to think about much more than the changes needed on Main Street...
I am the LTR poster from 8:31 am today...
Will Related's successful formula at Southtown - Starbucks + Duane-Reade as "anchors", then added restaurants & various service establishments, all geared to the care & well-being of the Southtown's upscale tenants/owners, be translatable to Northtown, which has a less well-off mix of tenants/owners?
How about using the Lily's School space as the site of a new restaurant, which would have an outdoor area opening onto the fountain plaza and park? This might make a nice "gateway" to Main Street retail.
Maybe some of the previous "quirky" businesses of Main Street could stay - as piquant accents among newer more "standard" stores or service establishments.
Also - Can Related take a hand in getting the Library enlarged & upgraded - maybe this project should take top priority before decisions about stores on Main Street are made.
I totally agree with the 1:45pm poster- couldn't have stated it better myself...
Long term resident- WV-28.5 years...
Some of you are never happy!! Why don't we go door to door and solicit every single resident on their opinion on the Main St. stores. By that time another 5 years will have passed with no progress. Like every single city in the U.S. new stores will open and if they don't make money they will close. This is not rocket science!!
to 6:51-
you are a schmuck and obviously do not know the history w/rioc and all the store closings on the island (w/exception to the liquor store). the old timers dont want the island to be a huge strip mall with big chain stores, but also dont want empty stores or degrading store fronts, the rents are too damn high for a small shop keeper. yes we are "never happy" but that is considering who is running the show here on the island.
To 7:01
Wow, strong language for someone who has no clue!! The reason you could not lease any stores after they closed was because of all the red tape. Now with the Master Lease Agreement there will be no more waiting. For the first time, ANYONE will be able to lease a store without going through NY State. Just look at Southtown, and if you don't like the new stores don't shop there. The best part of this is that you have no say in the matter and free market will dictate what stores open and survive.
Who cares about the history of RIOC and RI? We finally have a breakthrough in the retail store issue and we should be looking forward now. The free market will determine what shopkeeper gets what store - just like anywhere else in this country. Community input would be nice but it is definitely not a requirement nor is it really necessary (except when it comes to liquor licenses, of course). We can always vote with our wallets.
voting with our wallets has really helped with the grishities issue.
Look forward to see IF thenon competition clause in the contract wiith Gristede will finally be reviewed.
this sounds like the buyout of eastwood all over again.i am still trying to find out who in rioc and DHCR got paid off 5 years ago to LET AFFORDABLE housing disappear from eastwood .they should all be put in jail.
Why do you think anybody was paid off? The agreements expired and it is up to the property owners to decide what to do moving forward. They decided to turn some of the apartments into market-rate apartments. Nothing wrong with that. They didn't kick anybody out - except those, maybe, who didn't play by the rules.
o yea ,some apartments.870 apartments into market rent, and only 130 into a lap program. who the hell are you kidding .go ask ron vass he will tell you all about the great deal he made for the people of eastwood . more than one hundred apartments have become vacant because of this agreement, people had to move because of him and a few others in the eastwood building committee. why dont you get your hands on this agreement and read it . then you will see what a injustice has been done to the people of eastwood we gave money to ron vass of the eastwood building committee to fight for all the people in eastwood , he did not do that , you do not know what you are talking about ,the only ones who did not play by the rules as you say , are ron vass of the eastwood building comittee.
just this week another family moved out of eastwood because of the agreement ,sure no ones been kicked out. they are leaving on their own because of this agreement . please look up the facts ,so you know what the hell you are saying ,870 apartments to 130, think about it
870 to 130 and you say only a few apartments , yea right
i wish that joyce mincheff was on the eastwoodbuilding committee. 5 years ago when this agreetment was signed . because joyce would have never let it be appoved . ron vass and the eastwood building
committee got a great deal for themselves and the hell with the rest of us.so to you you people in westview and island house dont let this happend to you
do not use the lawyer who eastwood used .he is worthless and useless.what the hell kind of lawyer is he to let this go thur . what the hell was he paid for . i want my money back . hey ron i paid for your lawyer , give me back my money
To Joe-I am so sorry for what happened to all of the Residents in Eastwood.
We, in Westview have no damn clue-as usual as to what is going on..
I believe in IH, Island House where I have a friend, she says the same thing.
Our WVTF-Westview Taskforce Board, Inc. is down to a few people-right now all Men- who say they are 'negotiating'-almost no tenants show up at the bi-monthly meetings, no trust- I believe due to NO COMMUNICATIONS from this so-called 'Board' after a joke of an arm-twisting election a few mos. back- to get "enough tenants" for it to count-Very Scary..
They may have changed the by-laws-first drafted in 2006, appointed someone who resigned in Dec. and voila-voted back in by the 3? Directors in March-with no Tenants present.
We-Westview may be the next complex on the chopping block to go out of ML and could go market.
IH- Island House may have some kind of tenative deal with one of Westview's-baracuda-greedy owner-WV does not as of now..
I don't even think Westview has a law firm, from what I have heard -there is no money to pay anyone.
This mostly due to our "Ruler" who alienated all the great-good ex-TaskForce Members who left.
He is currently the Chairperson.
I didn't vote for him and was hoping the Building would vote in droves to get him out.
We have lots of new more affluent "newbies" in this Building that don't have a clue and don't care what may be going on.
Alot of us stand to lose our long-standing homes after years of paying the highest Mitchell Lama rents in NYS to the previous owners and the current one.
Our Building conditions have deteriorated-but we do have some of the best apt. on the Island.
All the Board talks about for the last 5 years or so is "privitazation" and the tenants who can buy-some of them Rich Professional, UN personnel, not working or middle class-the people the Building was built for and helped keep the Building going with our rents for the last 30 years or so.
This is all sickening and WV and IH could be the next Eastwood.
Looks like RC keeps being protected-they just got their Ground Lease extended by RIOC until 2068.
Ed Logue of the Rockefeller Admin. who saw this Island as a place for working and middle income New Yorkers to live- when it was vacant,except for Goldwater-built in 1938 for Polio victims and other seriously ill -bedridden patients along with Coler is rolling around in his Grave with disgust at what NYS and NYC have let happend all in the name of pure GREED!!!
The tearing down of Goldwater is disgusting-that is Mayor-Emperor Bloomberg-those patients have been here forever and that is their home-long befor any residential building were erected.
RI does not need a Standford or any other Research Lab-I so dismayed and heartsick at how this once lovely community has been ruined.
More Southtown buildings to go up-3 more and I am pretty darn sure-there will be no "affordable" units among the planned 5,500 new units.
RI is so small-the Island will sink- we cannot handle the volume of people now.
I am heartsick over all of this-
WESTVIEW TENANTS NEED TO ORGANIZE RIGHT NOW AND LEAN ON OUR SO- CALLED BOARD AND GET THEM TO LISTEN TO ALL THE TENANTS ON WHAT THEY MAY WANT- NOT WHAT MAY BE IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE FEW BOARD MEMBERS WHO SAY THEY NEGOTIATE AND ONLY THEY GET TO KNOW IF AND WHEN SOMETHING NEW IS GOING ON THAT AFFECTS THE 360 APARTMENTS HERE..
THE NEXT MEETING IS THIS TUESDAY-4/12-8;00pm in the Lower Community Room unless they postpone it.
Very concerned long-term Westview resident.
i hate to worry you ,but this sounds just like what the eastwood building committee led by the great ron vass did to the people in eastwood , ron made sure the deal he agreed to was hand made for him. and the hell with the masses.so i say to you get involed.go to all the meetings.one nite i went to bed ,my rent was 1500 per month, when i got up the next morning i am told my apartment now goes for 3,900,00.per month.thanks to you ron and your ebc drop dead
Well, we do live in a more or less free-market society. Once contracts expire the developers can do whatever they please. That's the dark side of the coin. We can fight this as much as we want but in the end all we can do is fight with our wallets. If they decide that there is no place for affordable housing on RI there is not much you or I can do.
Leaders like Mayor Bloomberg and the people he appoints, such as the ex-Schools Chancellor Ms. Black (thank goodness she at least had the sense to quit) these are the people who see NYC as their oyster, to either personally pick clean and profit from, or to make it easy for their friends to make a killing, usually in attractive real estate deals.
RI was once a fantastic "social experiment" but it is rapidly gentrifying, and will inevitably become another upscale neighborhood eventually.
Mitchel Lama is time-limited - so the commenter who noted this is absolutely correct. The developers are entitled to reap big profits after accepting less money from their investment for the first 20 or 30 years. This is exactly the deal with Mitchel-Lama.
Mitchel-Lama itself isn't the problem. The problem was having 2 terms of Giuliani & 3 terms of Bloomberg in NY - what that did to the moderate-income population.. It drove many out of the city, as they were priced out. Giuliani & Bloomberg did nothing to build apartments for the underpaid, often off-the-books workers - the most exploited category of labor, as well as middle-income population. The apartment "lotto system" is a joke - so few apartments were produced for this system and those that were are not even rent stabilized.
The logical thing for the apartments exiting Mitchell-Lama would have been to have them go into rent-stabilization - but does anyone really think Bloomberg or before him Giuliani would have pushed for this - to directly "harm" their biggest friends and contributors - those in the real estate industry? Of course not - thus you see the sad result all around you.
As progressive and right-thinking as Gov. Cuomo is - does anyone think he would ever advocate for buildings that exit Mitchell-Lama to go into rent stabilization? I doubt it - because real-estate development is one of the biggest industries in NY.
The only thing anyone can do is not vote for whoever runs for Mayor on the Republican line, or even, any ex-Bloomberg "minion" of the Democratic party, like Ms. Quinn.
Politicians that take huge campaign contributions from developers - and there are so many of them - must be unmasked. The entire system of campaign contributions, which enables a small number of corporations to exercise undue influence over law-making, must be dismantled. Politicians should be allowed a certain amount of campaign money from a common fund, with no strings attached, no meetings from donors to that fund allowed. Then and only then will real democracy in the US dawn again.
ok let me tell you what is going on at roosevelt landings, see when the owner came out of m.l. he placed as many apartments into sec 8 , see because sec8 will pay the market rent of each apartment . so there were 870 apartments that were placed into fair market in which dhcr is paying the rent. rents that go for 1900-4300.per month .the other 130 apartments got rent stabilization,now many many people who were placed into sec8 did not want to be put into sec8 . they wanted rent stabilization,because many of them are not on fixed incomes and our income keeps going up and then there will come a time when ones income can no longer stay in sec8 , then the person will be responable for the market rent of the apartment without the help of sec 8 ,see there were alot of people who did not want help from dhrc to pay the rent .we wanted rent stabilization like the other 130 people .see its good for the owner to put as many people into sec8 , because he will get the market rent for each apartment . this is why so many people who are in sec8 should not be in it .i can not understand how dhrc would let the owner put about 90 percent of the apartments into sec8 when many of these people did not want it. .dhrc is not looking out for the good of the tax payer.dhrc is paying 1900 to 4300 per month for these apartments, many people have moved. these were hard working middle income people as their income went up and 30 percent of their income became too much for rent or they lose the sec8 because their income became too high for sec8 , and then they had to pay the market rent , they were forced to move.i can not understand how dhcr can force people into sec8 when they dont want it . is it not better to give a person a rent stabilization apartment . oh its called lap its rent stabilization plus 1 percent.dhrc should have told the owner he must put people into rent stabilization if they want it sec8 is a program for people on fixed income and low income , it was not made for middle income people. ok you did your taxes this year gross income take 30 percent of all your income. gross not net and that will be you rent and that is just your income if you have kids with a summer job a baby sitting job any income your kids may have ,well that goes for the rent too, if your kids away in collage and gets a part time job to buy books for school well that income goes to rent too,the funny thing is there are well over 150 vacant apartments in roosevelt landings , he can not rent these apartments for this kind of rent , in fact he is giving free metro cards for one year jf you rent an apartment .so with out dhcr paying these rents he would have no building. .the middle income people got a very bad deal .most of them have moved . sec8 is good for low income and fixed income . that is what it was made for . you do not put working middle income people into sec8 .this is why i am very upset with ron vass of the eastwoodbuilding committe ,he should have put a safely net in the agreement for the middle income working people that would have said when a persons income gets too high to stay in sec 8 then that persons apartment will go into rent stablization,many people have moved because of this thats why there are many many vacant apartments,and i must add that of cause ron vass and the people in the eastwood building committee all got rent stablizated apartments,thank you for reading this. but someone should look into dhcr who let this happend
To all of the above- posters- I am the poster in Westview- I know, it sounds alot like Eastwood..
No one-No Agency cares about working or middle class or even slightly above that anymore anywhere- especially here in NYC, my home city of gentrification and Greed nightmare.
We are told DHCR cares and is for affordable housing- looking at Eastwood-aka Roosevelt Landing- what a mess-what a total disgrace and all the innocent tenants that thought they were getting a decent deal, when the last owner- Jerome Belson went out of the ML system.
All those people should be in jail.
I am also afraid some of this very shady "Board" could be in a private deal with the owners-who knows..
They don't want the Tenants organizied-very interesting here in WV- a few years ago we were very organized and had a good-working together and communicating Task Force-not in the last Year or so..
There are unemployed people in this building who are living with relatives, like everywhere else these days in the these United States of ours.
I don't know what we are all supposed to do.
This Island used to fight all together-the "WIRE" buildings and now we are all separated-a very sad and bad situation..
Roosevelt Island will just become another upper income-who cares who settled it and to Hell with them neighborhoo with no one fighting for us-i.e. elected officials, RIOC, etc.
FDR is rolling in his grave and Ed Logue.
I know ML wasn't supposed to last forever, but there is a GDP in place that was supposed to hold to certain percentages of "affordable housing" on Roosevelt Island and also the Lease between the City of New York and the State of New York from 1968-2068.
"Emperor" Bloomberg could care less about working class, middle class, look at all the Luxury developments in Manahattan-alot of them sitting half empty.
Now-here on RI-they are over here- with the River views and easy accessiblity to the city.
Those people could afford to live anywhere.
Roosevelt Island should have been preserved as it was conceived for working and middle class people, it was orignially built for New Yorkers-like postal workers, Teachers, etc.
This has been heartbreaking to watch and live through..
I say we can try to fight back in WV-but the powers-that-be-i.e, DHCR, RIOC, EDC only see the millions of Dollars to be made-NOT the people's lives that are affected by their decisions.
Time to leave- and go to a more peaceful place-my home city of NY holds nothing for me and now my Beloved home of Roosevelt Island has been paved over and the built a Parking lot-or as Joni Mitchell sang-"they paved Paradise and put up a Parking Lot".
Didn't take too long to ruin a viable, all-together-small community-conceived by some very forthright Men who had the vision and courage to build something for the working and middle class of the City of New York.
Long-term WV resident.
the one who should be in jail is ron vass . then put the rest of the eastwood building committee in jail for a long long time for what they did to eastwood , also put the lawyer in jail. because he took our money and him and ron vass and the rest of the ebc sol;d out the working middle income people of eastwood .as most of them have moved away . to ron vass ,,, drop dead
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