Will Millennials Ever Move To Staten Island?
Harnessing real estate's most coveted age group is key for Ironstate Development president David Barry. That's because the success of Urby Staten Island, a roughly 900-unit rental complex in Staten Island's Stapleton neighborhood, could hinge on whether he and his team can do so.
The project’s origins go back to Ironstate negotiating with the city's Economic Development Corp in 2009 to develop the seven-acre site, which had formerly been a Navy facility. The total cost to the developer is estimated at $275M.
The project’s first of two phases is being built, with one building housing 104 units just a couple of weeks into full operation.
Phase 1 will bring a total of 571 units online later this year, with about 300 more coming in the second phase, due to be completed in 2018.
Is it nuts to go this big with an if-you-build-it-they-will-come approach?
“People said that about Brooklyn 10 or 15 years ago,” David said on a recent tour of the site. “And they said it about Jersey City five years ago.”
(Ironstate is in a partnership with Mack-Cali to build Urby Harborside in Jersey City. The first of three 69-story towers is being built now.)
For Urby Staten Island, the bells and whistles aren’t lacking: there are waterfront views, an in-house chef, and even an urban farm that will have a farmer-in-residence.
Those amenities will come in phases, but we did spot the chef, Brendan Costello, in the communal kitchen area, snapped with David.
When we toured the site last week, residents were only starting to move in—there were fewer than 50 units occupied. The developer notes, however, that the grand opening doesn't take place until June.
Who’s moving in? So far, David tells us tenants include medical students, nurses and professionals working in Lower Manhattan.
Many have come from Staten Island itself, and David’s prediction is that as the development fills up, roughly half of residents will be drawn from the borough’s population of roughly half a million. The other half, he expects will come over from Manhattan or Brooklyn in search of rent relief.
Just how much relief will they get? Right now, studios start at around $1,700, which is $458 below Brooklyn’s average price this March, according to a recent report by MNS. Two-bedrooms will run up to $3,400—about in line with the average Brooklyn price in March, according to MNS. Ironstate says Urby's amenities and the quality of the units are a cut above your run-of-the-mill Brooklyn apartment, however.
As you walk around the site and hear about the amenities offered, one thing stands out: There’s an effort to foster a community housed within the complex.
You can see it in the layout of the buildings—which funnel pedestrians through a central promenade not too different from a campus quad—to communal activities that’ll start to be offered as more residents move in. David says the analogy to a “dorm for adults” isn’t too far-fetched.
“There are things about the dorm experience that people love. It’s connected, it’s social,” David says. “But there’s also a million rules in a dorm. The piece we’ve tried to take from it is the connection part.”
As for the units themselves, there’s what David describes as a plug-and-play approach to the design: shelving is built-in, laundry is in-unit, and the locks on the doors open using a mobile app.
The idea, he says, is to minimize the hassle of moving in, and of living once you’re moved in. Ironstate is also working to minimize the hassle of getting from the site, which sits about a mile and a half from the Staten Island Ferry terminal in St. George.
There are loaner bikes for residents, and a shuttle bus to and from the ferry will start operating in the coming months. The project’s 35k SF of retail will emphasize food and beverage options for residents and the surrounding community, David says.
