Interview With Hudson Companies David Kramer On More Than A Quarter Century Of Roosevelt Island Real Estate Development - Take A Tour Of The New Hudson Related Riverwalk Heights Luxury Rental Building Too
In 1997 the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) designated a joint venture between the Hudson Companies and Related Companies (Hudson Related) to develop the Southtown area of Roosevelt Island with a 9 building development now known as Riverwalk. So began Hudson Companies developer David Kramer's
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| Image Of David Kramer Being Interviewed At Riverwalk Heights Rooftop Lounge |
more than a quarter century relationship with Roosevelt Island. Mr Kramer has
now seen completion of Riverwalk Heights, the ninth and final
building of the Southtown project.
The Riverwalk Heights building includes staff housing on the first 8 floors
for Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital employees, 7 thousand square feet of ground floor and below grade commercial office space for RIOC, 20 floors of market rate luxury rental apartments and an
extension of the current Riverwalk Commons between Riverwalk Heights and
Riverwalk Park buildings with outdoor recreational areas and 2 dog runs.
I recently met with Mr Kramer, took a tour of the new Riverwalk Heights building and spoke with him about his Roosevelt Island experience. According to Mr Kramer:
What are my thoughts? It's been a quarter century so I've had a lot of thoughts through the years. I don't think when we started in 1997 we had any vision it would end up as beautifully as it has with the types of buildings, with the success and variety we've had building nine different buildings. We've developed everything from condominiums to rental housing to affordable housing to staff housing for the hospitals and then we got involved with Cornell Tech and developed their residential tower so it's been a it's been a fun run.
We feel very committed as Roosevelt Island stakeholders since we started and we may have saved the best for last. Riverwalk Heights is the tallest building, everything on the west side of Main Street is 16 stories and this building is 28 stories so it's got the best views.You're filming me now in the rooftop lounge and up here we have a lounge, a kitchen area that you can reserve to throw a private dinner party, we have a co-working space and a VR room so there's a lot of amenities up here. There's a lot of amenities down in the lower level next to the lobby including a half [basketball] court, gym, fitness room and kids lounge...
About the RIOC office space, Mr Kramer says:
... The ground floor we negotiated office space for RIOC. I forget what the backstory was, but part of it was "Hey come on RIOC you could use some nice classy modern office space".Their old office space was pretty dumpy and as long as we were building new buildings it made sense that maybe we should negotiate something so that they would get a below market office rent and we were happy to have some of the first floor go to RIOC. So RIOC has two levels at the base of the building and I think they're moving in shortly...
I asked Mr Kramer about any future development opportunities on Roosevelt
Island. Mr Kramer answered:
... We are stakeholders and we have really enjoyed being here. We know the Island. Never say never. Right now the Island is built out per the terms of the General Development Plan which is the Lease between the City and the State so at this moment the only way that Hudson Related may get involved is on a subsequent phase of Cornell Tech.But for the non-Cornell tech part of Roosevelt Island those of us who care about Roosevelt Island have talked about whether there are other development opportunities, whether it has to do with the Steam Plant building or I think the the City's planning to continue to maintain Colar as a hospital so I'm not sure exactly where there may be new opportunities.Should Roosevelt Island expand and have a higher residential population you know that's reasonable people can disagree. Certainly we've all seen the issues of the tram being crowded with tourists there's an issue of people getting on the subway in the morning.... you'd have to think through those issues...As you know Hudson Related is also very involved in the retail leasing of the Island. With the exception of WestView we operate all the other retail on the Island so from the retailer's perspective, the Island could certainly use more foot traffic but it's to be determines ....
Mr Kramer added:
.... and the only way people will know what's happening is if they read their Roosevelt Islander blog to find out all the important information about the Island.
Here's the full interview with Mr Kramer.
Mr Kramer also noted his first experience with Roosevelt Island was before Hudson Related was designated the Southtown developer. As he was running a Roosevelt Island 5K in 1996, he turned his head and
noticed being cheered on by Al (Grandpa Munster) Lewis in the homestretch of the race.
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| Photo of Al Lewis with friends at Trellis Restaurant By Karen Lewis |
During my tour with Mr Kramer, I also spoke with Riverwalk Heights Related Rentals Leasing Agent Lisa Ansari about the building. According to Ms Ansari:
Riverwalk Heights is our newest building. it's the ninth building with Related Hudson Venture. We are the also the tallest building so you have this amazing view of the city... We have studios all the way up to two bedrooms. For two bedroom we have two types. Two bedrooms, one bath and two bedrooms two bath.We have an amazing amenity space upstairs with rooftops and lounges .... we also have additional areas where you have to pay an amenity fee. Our amenity fee is $50 per person per month. It includes the VR room, co-working space, we also have downstairs the gym and the kids room and the half basketball court...... Studios range anywhere from our smallest one being around 430 square feet and the largest one around 560 square feet. Studio price ranges anywhere from around $3200 to $3,300 all the way up to a little over $4,000 for the premium corner studios.For one bedroom we have square footage around 670 all the way up to about 750 square ft. Some are corner, some are not corner but they all have amazing views and the price range is around anywhere from around $41 or $4,200 and then of course the higher premium floors are 5,000 plus.The two bedroom one bath starts around $61 or $6200 and they are approximately about850 square feet and the two bedroom two bath which is facing south and west and north, that one is approximately 1075 square ft and price range right now they start around $6500 but right now we don't have very many left and the highest floor we have left is at $7280 on the 28th floor...
Here's Mr Kramer shooting hoops at the Riverwalk Heights indoor basketball court and the stunning views high above Roosevelt Island from the building's rooftop terrace.
The Riverwalk Heights website and Instagram Page has more info on the building.
