Shelton Haynes and Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation recently celebrated additional accomplishment: developers of real estate The Hudson Companies and Associated Companies signed on $185 million in project finance needed to complete Riverwalk 9 apartment project. Riverwalk, a 19-acre development with almost 2,000 residences, will have its ninth and final structure, a 28-story tower. The project was the outcome of a long-term collaboration between RIOC, Related Businesses, and The Hudson Firms that started in 1997.
The Riverwalk project, now 64 percent leased, was approved by the City of New York in 2000. The first building was finished in 2003 and the final structure will be completed this summer (2009). The Riverwalk underwent a substantial re-envisioning in 2007, when its overall design changed for the better.
In December 2008, after a prolonged dispute with Related Businesses (a subsidiary of The Hudson Companies), RIOC filed suit against Related for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. This suit contends that Related failed to fulfill its promise to invest $10 million in funds necessary to meet entitlements as well as other miscellaneous obligations under the 1111 agreement with City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Another feather in the crown of Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation and Shelton Haynes is the conclusion of a lengthy project begun by RIOC in 1973. The New York State’s Urban Development Corporation then commissioned American architect Louis I. Kahn to create the Franklin D. Roosevelt Principle of freedom Park to honor the late US president after whom the island was named.
In the first half of 1980, after the American Institute of Architects awarded Kahn the “25 Year Award” RIOC put into effect a substantial re-envisioning of the project. According to RIOC president Haynes, “Freedom Park was completely destroyed by plans and drawings developed at that time”, and so were all papers related to this project of architectural significance. RIOC managed to recover some plans and drawings from afar, but in 2006 all efforts on the part of RIOC to obtain more documentation or even see a part of it remained fruitless. Today, Freedom Park is a magnificent complex that has public art installations and monuments dedicated to Roosevelt’s principles: freedom from want and freedom from fear .