Does Roosevelt Island Need Child-Centric Retail Store, What's the Latest on Main Street Master Leaseholder - On Track and Coming Soon Says RIOC

You Tube Video of Giggle Baby Store

Does Roosevelt Island need a child-centric store as part of the retail makeover that will soon be coming when Hudson/Related takes over as the Master Leaseholder for Main Street. According to Real Estate Weekly:

... Normally people move to the suburbs, but people are tending to stay,” said Gary Alterman, a senior vice president at RKF. Between 2000 and 2006, according to the New York Times, Manhattan’s five-and-under crowd increased by over 32%, and has only continued to boom.

Kid-centric retailers are picking up on this trend: over the last decade, Alterman has helped New York Kids Club, a play center for infants through 12-year-olds, secure five locations across Manhattan. Two are on the Upper West Side, a traditional magnet for young families. Others serve children in the Upper East Side, Gramercy Park, and TriBeCa....

... Brooklyn is a hot place,” said Alterman. But children’s stores are popping up in emerging neighborhoods citywide. Giggle, an upscale clothier with outposts in SoHo and upper Manhattan, is scouting sites in Long Island City, where a handful of luxury towers have attracted families in recent years.

Soon, Alterman predicts that Roosevelt Island, a small slice of suburbia between midtown and Queens, will see an influx of child-friendly retail....

Read the whole Real Estate Weekly article here.

What's the latest on the Roosevelt Island Main Street Master Leaseholder?

As reported previously, the  Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board of Directors Real Estate Committee met last Monday. The first two items on the Committee's Agenda were the appointment of a new Real Estate Committee member and Chairperson, both to replace former RIOC Director Jonathan Kalkin.  The Third Agenda item was:

3. Chair’s Motion for Executive Session to:

a. Review and Discuss Terms of the Main Street Commercial Master Lease; and
b. Review the Status of Privatization/Affordability Plan and Ground Lease Extension for Island House

Prior to the start of the meeting, I asked the RIOC Directors and Staff present whether it was still their intent to conduct the discussion on the Master Leaseholder and Island House Privatization in Executive Session closed to the public. They said that it was.

As the meeting began, it was announced that RIOC Board member Howard Polivy would be the new Real Estate Committee member and Mr. Polivy was then elected to be the Real Estate Committee's Chairperson.

 Image of RIOC Real Estate Chair Howard Polivy (in front of laptop)

At that point I expected to be asked to leave the room so that the Committee could go into Executive Session as planned.

To my surprise, Mr. Polivy indicated that he would like, as far as possible, to have a discussion on the Main Street Master Lease and Island House privatization in public so that the Roosevelt Island community could have some idea as to what was going on.

RIOC President Leslie Torres then gave a brief recap of the Master Leaseholder status, indicating that there had been no change to the basic plan, just about every issue has been resolved and that the lease should be ready for signing within a few more weeks. Ms. Torres noted there had been some delay's with the attorneys involved and that discussions were still ongoing regarding Hudson/Related's responsibilities to existing leaseholders.

Good job by Mr. Polivy on his first day as Real Estate Chair in trying to keep the public informed as to what is going on.

An audio webcast of the Real Estate Committee Meeting's Public Session should be available soon, usually withing two days of the meeting, although at the time of this post, it is not yet on the RIOC web site.