Roosevelt Island’s landlord hopes to attract new development as the sliver of land in the East River transforms itself from a collective of subsidized housing into a higher-end residential neighborhood.
Some residents, though, are wary of plans hatched by the state-run Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, which oversees the area. Last year, it hired real estate brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle to market two new development and investment opportunities and three development sites that opponents fear will change the island’s character further.
The corporation seeks proposals for a variety of potential developments, including residential, retail, cultural, senior housing, hospitality, or research facilities that would take advantage of the island’s “enormous untapped potential,” according to a statement by Paul Mas, an executive vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle who is overseeing the process.
So far, no developers or projects have been chosen. At a public meeting held in mid-February, Mas said he received 16 responses to the RFP’s, two of which were noncompliant. Projects include a majority interest in the 2,000-space parking garage, located at the foot of the bridge that connects the island to Queens, and an interest in 80,000 square feet of adjoining retail space that houses the island’s only supermarket and other smaller businesses.
The largest development site stretches 4.5 acres from shore to shore beneath the Queensboro Bridge. Other parcels include an acre on the island’s northeastern shoreline, and 2.5 acres sandwiched between Goldwater Memorial Hospital and the Renwick Ruins, a city landmark, located near the island’s southern tip.
Critics are not impressed. “It all seems to be pie in the sky at this point,” said Judith Berdy, president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society.
Many residents fear that the island is moving too far from its roots. In 1969, the Roosevelt Islandécorporation leased the two-mile long, 600-foot wide island from the city for 99 years, constructed a planned community of limited scope in the 1970’s and began jumpstarting the development of several residential buildings in the late 1990’s.
With the expiration of Mitchell-Lama rules, which kept rents artificially low, some landowners have petitioned to charge higher rents.
At the same time, three central retailers — the island’s bakery, pizzeria, and sports bar — recently went out of business, providing additional ammunition to longtime residents who would like to see the insular island retain its small scale and open space. The closings should serve as a bleak example for future retailers, said Berdy, who has lived on the island of 10,000 residents since 1977.
“What big company is going to come in here to operate a store?” she said. “They can’t maintain the parking garage and now they’re trying to build big retail complex? It’s a boondoggle.” Herbert Berman, president and COO of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, said that owner mismanagement caused the stores to fail, and the agency will scrutinize potential retail operators more rigorously in the future.
He said his agency is caught in a Catch-22. “If we develop more residential properties, and raise the population by 50 percent, then we can help sustain retail outlets,” he said, “but a very vocal minority complains about the empty stores and they complain about the development that can support them.”
Berman said critics have fostered a culture of perpetual complaining and don’t recognize the benefit of long-term planning.
“There’s a core of people who raise objections no matter how much we explain that we’re collecting initial proposals so that we can help the board develop a conceptual plan that will benefit the island,” he said. “We want the island to become self-sustaining.”
Roosevelt Island is already in the midst of radical residential changes. The 500-unit market-rate rental the Octagon gets its first tenants this month. At Southtown, clustered around the island’s subway stop, nine buildings and 2,000 units are planned, with the island’s first condo building, Riverwalk Place, almost finished.
But critics worry that if big-box stores are developed on the island, it will tax the fragile infrastructure. “The state,” Berdy said, “has invested not one cent of capital funds on this island.”