David Kramer
David Kramer
President at Hudson Companies
Last year's rank: 63
After a year that saw his company work on 11 projects with a total development cost of over $1.36 billion, Hudson Companies President David Kramer is enthusiastic about the company’s prospects for 2020, COVID-19 be damned.
“I wear a mask and I get on the subway and I go to work everyday,” said Kramer, who notes that he tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies and had “very minor reactions” to the disease back in March. “The subways are basically empty. To me, they’re the equivalent of going to Trader Joe’s. You’re socially distant, everybody’s wearing a mask, and you leave 15 minutes later. I happen to be more productive sitting at my desk. Luckily, Hudson’s been very productive with remote working.”
Kramer notes that three of the company’s residential projects topped out in 2019 and are expected to finish this year: One Clinton, a mixed-use 36-story high-rise with 134 condo units atop a new branch of the Brooklyn Public Library in Brooklyn Heights; La Central, a two-building affordable project with 496 units in the Bronx; and Riverwalk Park, a mixed-income rental building on Roosevelt Island.
“The headline for Hudson is that we have a really interesting diversification of residential development,” said Kramer. “We don’t really dabble in retail, office or hotels. But within the residential world, we have a really fun range of projects that goes from high-end luxury condos to less-expensive, but market-rate, rentals. And, we’re very active as affordable developers.”
Kramer notes that his rental business has held steady since the onset of COVID: rental collections have averaged over 90 percent throughout.
With his ongoing projects, plus others in the pipeline including a student housing project in Queens and various green housing initiatives, Kramer sees a lot to be excited about for the rest of 2020 and beyond.
“Hudson and Related have been building this neighborhood called Riverwalk since 1997,” Kramer said. “We were designated for a master plan to build 2,000 units on Roosevelt Island, just north of the Ed Koch Bridge. Besides constructing nine buildings, we also built the residential tower for the Cornell Tech campus, and we signed a master lease to operate most of the retail stores on the island. We’re going to get our TCO for Riverwalk 8, aka Riverwalk Park, any second now, and Riverwalk 9 is the last project in this neighborhood. We’re going to close on it in 2020. That’s an exciting project. It’s a benchmark moment for Hudson and Related to be in the home stretch of building this neighborhood that we’re incredibly proud of.”—L.G.
