Andrew Weisz, son of RPW Group founder Robert P. Weisz, has been named president of the company. The announcement was made at the Dec. 14 company holiday party and was the second significant announcement for RPW in a matter of days. It previously was revealed that RPW Group had purchased the downtown White Plains office building at 10 Bank St. from Empire State Realty Trust.
“The proximity to the Metro-North train station we think is key,” Andrew Weisz told the Business Journals. “Within the history of commercial real estate in Westchester County it”™s one of the newer buildings that was constructed. It”™s always been a building that”™s maintained very strong occupancy due to its location.”
As president of RPW, Weisz plans to continue reverse-commuting from his home in the West Village in Manhattan to RPW”™s headquarters at 800 Westchester Ave. in Rye Brook. Andrew Weisz, now 33 years old. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College, where he majored in International Studies. He notes that he and his father are the only members of the Weisz family in the business.
Andrew”™s father, Robert P. Weisz, was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and came to the U. S. in January 1977. He got into the furniture business and in 1979 purchased a warehouse for the furniture company to use. After that, his interest in commercial real estate took off and the RPW Group followed.
The 12-story building at 10 Bank St. contains 220,000 square feet with full floors of 25,100 square feet. Each floor has six corner offices, the floors are not cluttered with columns and there is a full-service cafeteria. There is parking for 417 vehicles.
“We”™re going to be adding a fitness center and conferencing center to the building,” Weisz said. “We”™re going to be modernizing the lobby and creating a more open feel. We”™re going to be creating a tenant lounge in the lobby that will offer seating and additional informal work spaces for tenants to use throughout the day that will also offer a conference room. We”™re also going to be expanding the existing cafeteria with a larger serving area and more seating as well as some outdoor seating opportunities that don”™t presently exist as well as pre-building some vacant suites into modern office environments.”
Weisz said that he could not disclose the purchase price of the building due to confidentiality requirements but did note that there was some assumable financing that was attractive given the current interest rate atmosphere.
“We owned a number of properties in the White Plains Central Business District over the years. its probably been 15 to 20 years since we”™ve sold those properties,” Weisz said. “Over the last few years my father and I have really been targeting to get back into downtown White Plains. It offers prospective tenants that come to look at our properties in our suburban office parks an opportunity to also look at an offering downtown all under the RPW Group umbrella.”
Weisz said that with all of the real estate activity taking place in downtown White Plains right now, RPW wanted to be involved and 10 Bank St. offered a perfect way to have a presence.
Andrew Weisz joined the RPW Group in 2017. He had been with Cushman & Wakefield and Newmark in Manhattan and said that he had long anticipated joining RPW.
“The experience outside the firm in New York was incredibly beneficial,” Weisz said. “Since I joined five years ago I”™ve really jumped in head first and touched all aspects of the business to get a really strong understanding of it. Both my father and the team members of the firm have been tremendously supportive. I was brought on as a vice president and three years ago was promoted to executive vice president.”
Weisz said while he”™ll be assuming the role as president of the RPW Group, his father will remain as chairman and CEO.
“We will both be incredibly visible and both continue to be very involved in the community,” Weisz said. “It will sort of be a tag-team of the two of us.”
