Not on Roosevelt Island — at least, not if they can help it. Residents do just 12 percent of their shopping on the island, according to a survey by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation two-and-a-half years ago. “I make it my business to shop elsewhere,” said Janet Falk, a public-relations consultant and four-year resident who drives to supermarkets in nearby Queens. “I’ve seen my neighbors at Costco, and they hire a local taxi service to take them home with their items.” The Queens supermarkets “deliver for free if you spend $50, and that’s not very hard,” added Judith Berdy, the president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society. She has lived on the island for 34 years. The 14,000 residents of Roosevelt Island, the skinny land mass in the East River between Queens and the island of Manhattan, reached by a distinctive red tram, have groused for years about the Main Street retail corridor, bedraggled and unappealing. They were heartened last August when two private developers, the Hudson Companies and the Related Companies, took over management of the strip, with its 100,000 square feet of retail space. Now, several new shopkeepers have been lined up. New arrivals along Main Street will include a food market called Wholesome Direct and a wine and liquor store called Island Spirits. Also arriving will be a Subway sandwich shop and a Europan Bakery Cafe, with its assortment of pastries, snacks and meals. The new retail rents in Roosevelt Island are around $40 to $50 a square foot, which is exceedingly low for Manhattan, said David Kramer, a principal of the Hudson Companies. Residents, developers and retailers are expecting a surge in activity on the island in coming years, with the completion of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on the island’s southern tip and the planned Cornell technical campus. In the last dozen years, the Hudson-Related partnership has built the Riverwalk community of six residential buildings, with three more planned. Riverwalk includes several stores, including a Duane Reade with a large grocery section, a Starbucks, a deli and some restaurants. Those stores have been successful, Mr. Kramer said, belying the myth that “Roosevelt Island just plain wasn’t going to have successful retail.” “Success begets success, and lack of success reinforces more inactivity,” he added. “If anything, retail should be stronger on Roosevelt Island because you have a captive audience. There is a need that is clearly not being met by what is there now.” The Main Street retail strip was formerly run by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, or R.I.O.C., the state agency that manages the island. “As a government entity, R.I.O.C. was constrained by the laws that require the R.F.P. process in order to rent any space,” said Leslie Torres, the president of the corporation, referring to a request for proposal. She added: “You have to publicize the bid, people have a certain amount of time to respond, the bids have to be reviewed, it has to go before a board.. It’s a lot of steps. Democracy takes time. It is not the normal course of how business is run — it is how governments run business. Not everyone opening a small mom-and-pop store wants go through that sort of process, I would assume.” Some prospective merchants would follow up, she added, and some would not. But with so many vacant storefronts, “clearly things were not going as well as we wanted,” she said. “It wasn’t a vibrant Main Street. I was excited to enter into a partnership with Hudson-Related to manage our commercial space because they have the expertise to do it.” The retail corridor will be spruced up with new signage, street furniture, lighting and what Mr. Kramer calls “way-finding elements,” including digital kiosks with you-are-here maps. Several nonretailing tenants also have new leases. The Child School, for students with special needs, will take a second-floor space for its arts center. Gallery Rivaa, an art gallery, had not been paying rent, but now has a three-year lease at a below-market rate. The New York Public Library might expand its Roosevelt Island branch, depending on financing. An additional eight leases are expected to be signed within the next six months, Mr. Kramer said. These might include ethnic restaurants, a bakery, a pet store, a florist and a shoe-repair shop. What will not be coming, however, are national chains like McDonald’s or Burger King. “The traffic doesn’t warrant it,” said Hal Shapiro, a managing director of Winick Realty Group, which does retail leasing.
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