Gotham Magazine: Cornell Tech’s Plan for a Co-Working Space Could Completely Change Roosevelt Island

The Bridge at Cornell Tech, the corporate co-location building and co-working space on our future Roosevelt Island campus, will bring a whole new population of people to the Island, Gotham Magazine reports.

Unlike most commercial developments, The Bridge doesn’t have pre-leased anchor tenants other than Cornell Tech, and is therefore being designed in a “speculative way,” explains Gilmartin. “Rather than filling the space before building it, we are working from the ground up and harnessing what makes New York distinct in the innovation economy, so that we can [nurture those qualities] within this single structure.” Cornell Tech will lease approximately one-third of the 200,000-square-foot building, while a mix of startups and more established companies—carefully curated, of course, by both Forest City Ratner and the university—will occupy the rest of it.

“This is an opportunity for us to really handpick the best of the best,” adds Gilmartin. “We’re in no rush, and we’re willing to scour the earth, in a way.” According to Gilmartin, New York isn’t interested in being the new Silicon Valley, and The Bridge isn’t concerned with its balance sheet. “The selected tenants won’t be defined by the amount of space that they occupy, the credit they bring, or even the rent that they pay, but how they use this space to incubate new ways of thinking.”

Read the full article on Gotham Magazine.