Retail finally finds Roosevelt Island
- AM New York
- By Jacqui Gal
Photo by Lane Johnson
In many neighborhoods, the arrival of a Starbucks or a drug store chain usually signals a death knell for charm and the beginning of gentrification. Roosevelt Islanders, on the other hand, couldn’t be more delighted.
Residents of this two-mile strip of land, on the East River between Manhattan and Queens, have always relished the area for its quietness and proximity to the city, but bemoaned the lack of, well, everything. Now they are about to get a Duane Reade drugstore, and it’s the source of great excitement.
The quietness of Roosevelt Island is mostly because the island has only been in general residential use since the 1970s. Prior to that, it housed correctional institutions, hospitals and asylums, including the architecturally impressive Octagon building, which was recently renovated to produce 500 rental apartments.
Buildings on the Island generally feature plenty of amenities, including concierge and doorman services, gyms, dry cleaners and swimming pools, which compensate for any lack of services on Roosevelt Island itself. That new retail is chasing that growth, plus five new apartment buildings that are planned or already under construction.
Such buildings are part of a growing trend.
“It attracts a population that either has money or is very savvy and they want to feel that they live in a cool Manhattan apartment, but they can’t afford it,” said Kobi Josefsberg of the Real Estate Group of New York.
A part of the borough of Manhattan, Roosevelt Island has its own aerial tramway, connecting it to midtown (at 59th Street and Second Avenue) and a subway stop on the F train. A shuttle-bus service takes residents from these transport hubs to their apartments for 25 cents a ride.
The Duane Reade is set to open after Labor Day, with new Italian and Japanese restaurants also in the works. But as Roosevelt Islander, a blogger who has lived on the island for nine years, explains: the blessing of booming development is also a curse.
“It’s the great dichotomy of any area—with all the new amenities the rents are going to skyrocket and the people who have been here for 20 or 30 years are worried that they wont be able to afford it,” said the blogger, who declined to be identified for this story.
“The problem has always been that there’s nothing here. [All the new development] makes it seem almost as though you’re in civilization.”