Developer Alan Weissman appears to have done exactly what marketing and business development gurus insist entrepreneurs must do in order to be successful: “Find a need and fill it.”
His St. Regis Residences project at 120 Old Post Road in Rye has been welcoming its first residents, with Marriott International Inc., owner of the St Regis brand, starting to manage the luxury property.
Buyers had moved into the first dozen units as of the beginning of August.
“We”™ve completed the first two parts of the five-part project,” Weissman told the Business Journal. “The amenity space is now 100% complete and one of our residential buildings is also completely finished at this point and the next three buildings will be finished over the next couple of months so we”™re really at the end of the project.”
The St. Regis Residences complex will have 92 condominium units, ranging from one- to four-bedrooms. It is designed to fill a need for all of the comforts, conveniences and luxuries a resident could wish for as reflected in the St. Regis brand that has been nurtured since John Jacob Astor IV opened The St. Regis hotel in New York in 1903, which he had built while being a part owner of the Waldorf-Astoria.
The St. Regis brand is owned by Marriott International Inc., which has 30 brands, including Ritz-Carlton, Le Méridien and Sheraton. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, at the end of 2020 it had 2,149 company-owned properties and 5,493 franchised and licensed properties worldwide.
The company”™s operations were affected by Covid and for 2020 its revenues were $10.57 billion compared with $20.97 billion the year before.
The Bethesda, Maryland-based company has been active in the branded residences field, working with real estate developers such as Weissman to create projects in localities reflecting the quality of its brand names and then managing those properties. St. Regis Residences, Rye, will have a project cost of more than $100 million, according to Weissman.
“When the pandemic first hit we were very concerned but to our great surprise the sales…have been amazing. We”™ve achieved some of the highest sales per square foot prices in the market and we”™re currently at 80% sold and we haven”™t even finished the construction, so these are all pre-sales and it”™s absolutely spectacular in terms of our sales on the project,” Weissman said.
Weissman said that just as Covid-19 affected virtually all businesses, so too did it affect the St. Regis project.
“Timing is always an issue in construction, but with material shortages, labor shortages and other things and, of course, the pandemic itself, there have been some delays in the project but we”™ve pushed through and we”™re managing,” Weissman said.
“In the next couple of months we”™ll be 100% complete. Most of that 80% that have purchased here bought off the plans. They bought in a sales center first, a sales center on-site and then a sales center in the city of Rye, downtown Rye.”
Weissman expressed special pride in the St. Regis project, noting that the Harrison-based company Alfred Weissman Real Estate LLC, founded by his father some 50 years ago, has been involved in a variety of projects in what he termed “different food groups of real estate,” including hotels, office buildings, retail space and residences.
“It is the first standalone St. Regis in the world that is not connected to a hotel. All the others before this, going back to John Jacob Astor in New York City with the St. Regis have always been connected to a hotel,” Weissman said. “So, this is really unusual and we really kind of invented the whole concept here in Rye for the St. Regis brand and I know the upper levels of Marriott are very excited about what we”™re doing here.”
Weissman observed that there”™s a market for a wide variety of housing types in Westchester, whether it”™s affordable housing, middle-income or luxury projects.
“This is a luxury project. It is not affordable to most people. It”™s a very, very high-end project,” Weissman said. “What makes it kind of important for the community is that a lot of the people who are living here are business leaders, community leaders, who otherwise would leave the area and go other places.
“Now they have time to give back to the community. They”™re involved in their local charities, in their religious institutions and things like that. They”™re downsizing from their homes, beautiful homes in the immediate area in Westchester, Fairfield County, but usually they”™d move to New York City, move to Florida, and really aren”™t basing themselves here anymore and what the project kind of lets them do…is stay here and age in place, which really hasn”™t been that much of an option prior to this project.”
Weissman forecast a continuation in Westchester of the trend to convert office buildings for other uses, noting that the St. Regis site had been the Dictaphone office building when the Weissman company bought it two decades ago.
“I do think that post-pandemic there is going to be less of a reliance on offices. I do think people are working remote, going other places and I just don”™t see the need for as much office space as there was prior (to the pandemic) and even then there was a huge vacancy factor in Westchester,” Weissman said.
In the future, he said, the company will be looking at doing projects similar to the St. Regis Residences possibly in Westchester, New England and on Long Island and is considering the acquisition of a large group of hotels in the Midwest.
