Jody Kriss

Real Estate Projects

Jody Kriss co-founded East River Partners, a private investment and real estate development firm based in New York City. Jody focuses his energy on executing ERP’s many development projects as well as its new investment strategy. During 20+ years in the real estate industry, Jody Kriss has successfully completed ten condominium projects and helped assemble its portfolio of hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial properties in the northeast.

One of East River Partners’ crowning achievements was being awarded the Best Adaptive Reuse award in 2017 by the Victorian Society of New York. Jody Kriss and East River Partners received the award because of their work in preserving the Mezritch Synagogue in the East Village. The Synagogue is still active, occupying the property’s first floor and basement. The upper levels of the building are home to luxury condos. The arrangement helped the struggling synagogue to remain open.

East River Partners has a unique approach to business. They combine the roles of real estate developer and investment manager to seamlessly deliver exceptional service. Their company also solely handles condo marketing and sales. Because of the company’s unique investment strategy, ERP investors have a competitive edge in the NYC market. In total, Jody Kriss and the ERP team have done 15 deals. Most are completed, but some are still in the works. The small team consists of Jody Kriss and Joseph Cohen, Co-Founders, and Barbara Nicolini-Kriss, the Director of Sales.

One of the strategies he attributes to their business growth is “buying back shares” of their own business. They invest in their own projects, meaning they have a smaller amount of projects going at once than they could, but they own more shares of those projects. In the words of Jody Kriss, “Owning 100% of a $5 million business has some advantages over owning 20% of a $25 million business.”

Jody and the team focus their attention in neighborhoods with the strongest demand, especially New York’s brownstone neighborhoods. They are most known for doing gut-renovations, upholding the history and integrity of buildings that are in bad shape while giving the interior a complete contemporary facelift. The way they mix the old and the new provides a unique living experience. They are totally focused on providing the best living spaces possible with state-of-the-art appliances, big windows that let in natural light, and additional features like storage options. Some properties will also feature a garden duplex that occupies the first two floors of a building, and/or a penthouse suite with access to a private rooftop terrace.

As you can see above, Jody Kriss and the ERP team have been featured in a variety of press for their work in growing New York neighborhoods. If you’d like to learn more about Jody and his thoughts on business, check out his recently published interview at https://ideamensch.com/jody-kriss/.

272 West 86th St – completed 2017

171 South Portland Avenue – completed 2017

164 South Oxford Street – completed 2017

Jody and ERP have executed a vast variety of projects ranging from the renovation of historic brownstones in Brooklyn to a ground-up 47-story skyscraper in Manhattan and everything in between. Projects Jody has been a principal in also include the assemblage of twenty contiguous single-family homes comprising an entire city block, rezoning of industrial land to residential through the ULURP process and the redevelopment of three landmarked row houses on the Upper West Side where of everything-but-the-facades were demolished.

Jody’s two decades of experience in finance and development bring to East River Partners the ability to evaluate and succeed at a wide range of project types.

The completed projects by Jody Kriss and East River Partners is as follows:

  • 364 Union Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
  • 371 6th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn
  • 397 1st Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn
  • 383 Prospect Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn
  • 432 10th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn
  • 164 South Oxford Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
  • 272-276 West 86th Street in Manhattan’s Upper West Side
  • 415 East 6th Street in Manhattan’s East Village (Synagogue Project)

See Jody’s blog page for his “Project Spotlight” blog posts highlighting the incredible work he and East River Partners put into creating these beautiful spaces. You can also find videos based on these projects on his Vimeo profile.

Prior to his work with East River Partners, Jody had a plethora of impressive experience. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. The Wharton School is consistently ranked as one of the best business schools in the nation. In fact, Jody Kriss was a guest speaker for the Wharton Alumni Club of NYC. He has also spoken at NYU.

After completing his education, Jody spent his early career years at the Athena Group as an Analyst and Project Manager. In 1999, the project at 838 Fifth Avenue was the first condominium in NYC to breach the $2,000-per-square-foot mark, which was a huge win for Jody and the rest of the Athena team. Afterwards, he moved to an Associate role with APC Realty Advisors. At this investment banking firm, he furthered his investment knowledge which is instrumental to the East River Partners process. In addition to this experience, Jody Kriss also had a hand in assembling a 100,000-square-foot site in Brooklyn, rezoning a 13-acre site in Queens and developing a 47-story hotel in Manhattan.

Although Jody has had more than 20 years of experience in real estate, co-founding East River Partners is the first business venture of his very own. He initially had the idea in college. Mr. Kriss wished to start a real estate business that specialized in both historic preservation and new development. Philadelphia, where he attended college, would have been a great location for this kind of work. However, he chose to instead pursue the company in New York City.

Through all the distractions of daily life, Jody finds that it’s important to stay focused on priorities to stay productive. He has an analytical mind that is constantly thinking of the end product. His skills and attitude allow him to solve problems and challenges in the most productive way possible, foregoing projects that wouldn’t be worth time and effort in the end. He is a pro at allocating time, energy and financial resources to get the most out of any situation. However, Jody Kriss strongly believes in upholding integrity and working with people who do the same.

When you don’t find Jody working on the latest East River Partners’s project, you might find him training for a marathon. Mr. Kriss is passionate about health and fitness. Recently, he participated in a marathon to raise funds and awareness for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through Team in Training. Although he has a very busy schedule, he makes it a priority to exercise regularly. Losing an hour of work for something that benefits your health and wellbeing is well worth it. He is also a huge fan of Christopher Hitchens books.

For more from Jody Kriss, check out his main website, JodyKriss.com, or head over to his real estate market news blog. Stay tuned for new projects from Jody and the team at East River Partners!