In October of 2013, I had the honor of being interviewed for the commercial real estate section of the New York Times. Here is a summary of that interview, along with information about how far East River Partners has come in 5 years.

1. 30-Minute Interview
Jody Krisswith
ThenandNow...

2. In October of 2013, I had the honor
of being interviewed for the
commercial real estate section of
the New York Times. Vivian
Marino of the Times asked about
my career, especially the work
I’ve done with East River
Partners. Since the interview was
conducted nearly 5 years ago, I
thought it was about time for an
update.

3. First, Vivian wanted to know about East River Partners and
what we do. What I told Vivian still stands true today...
We redevelop buildings – often doing gut-renovations but
we have also moved into ground-up construction and
acquiring existing buildings to hold. Much of the work we’ve
done has been in the nice of four-and-five-story scale in
Brooklyn and Manhattan’s brownstone neighborhoods.
Our projects are generally geared toward middle-class
buyers, and are affordable for a lot of families by New York
standards. Moving forward we are even more focused on
building product that is affordable to a larger section of the
NYC’s population.
Business

4. Investments
In 2013, we had just one $12 million
fund with many financial investors.
Today, we have invested two fully-
discretionary private equity funds and
we’ve made many acquisitions outside
the fund. All told, we’ve done
transactions valued at several hundred
million dollars.
Our investment process has evolved to
be more focused than ever on avoiding
investments that come with challenges
that we think will be hard to overcome.
Then
No
w

5. I continue to find
development of
residential
properties in NYC to
be interesting. In
New York, you
have to move
quickly when you
come across a good
opportunity.
I've learned that there are two
components to putting together a
successful project:
1. The intellectual competition for
the best design and program for the
building.
2. The unwavering commitment to
the execution of the business plan.
Without both elements, NYC is too
competitive to succeed.
No
w
Real Estate Development in NYC

6. East River Partners Projects
At the time of the 2013 interview,
we were working on 8 projects.
Two had been completed, two
were almost complete, and four
were in the pipeline.
Then
No
w
I’m proud to say that we’ve completed all
the projects we were working on then and
have started many others.
Our newest project is a condominium (pic
above) in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn that
we will bein marketing in May 2018. It’s
almost completed and looks amazing so
we’re excited to invite the buyers who will
soon call it home in to view it.

7. Looking Forward
What is hurting the market right now?
On the bright side...
Buying is less attractive than renting because the Trump
administration passed new tax laws, making real estate
taxes and mortgage interest non-deductible
Rentals are oversupplied
Interest rates have risen
ROIs are more sustainable due to less
competition among investors
Construction costs are more predictable
Lenders have scaled back leverage, leading to
developer experience to matter again

8. Thankyoufor
viewing
Jody Kriss
Co-founder, East River Partners