Strategic Redevelopment That Builds Stronger Communities
At River Development, we turn environmentally compromised properties into thriving assets for communities across the Atlantic Coast. With over 40 years of experience, we’ve successfully navigate shifting economic cycles and evolving regulations—delivering impactful projects that blend environmental stewardship with smart redevelopment.
Our Leadership Team
Warren Waters Principal & Founding Member
With over four decades in the industry, Warren leads the firm’s strategic direction and design philosophy. His deep knowledge of zoning, planning, and land use allows River Development to tackle highly complex sites and expand into new markets. Beyond his professional accomplishments, Warren is active in philanthropy and serves on multiple nonprofit boards. He is also an Advisory Board Trustee at Valley National Bank.
Sam Waters Principal
Sam brings a data-driven and operational approach to redevelopment, focusing on land acquisition and large-scale project execution across industrial, mixed-use, and multifamily sectors. Prior to joining River Development, he led strategic initiatives at Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER), where he worked closely with city governments on transportation infrastructure. He holds a B.S. in Economics and Statistics from Carnegie Mellon University.
Matthew Waters Business Development Associate
Matthew heads tenant strategy and leads the company’s growing presence in hospitality development. With a strong background in digital marketing and experiential brand engagement, he has worked with high-profile clients including top retail brands, professional athletes, and entertainment figures.
Melissa Smith Administrative Lead
Melissa manages the operational backbone of River Development, including contract administration, invoicing, and internal financial systems. With 20 years of professional experience, she brings a strategic mindset to budgeting, forecasting, and workflow optimization.
Company Overview
River Development has over 40 years of redevelopment history in New Jersey and across the northeast. Through cyclical financial markets and constantly changing regulatory environments, River Development has developed a diverse range of projects including mixed-use city centers, specialty industrial, and residential properties.
River Development has differentiated itself through a deep focus on redevelopment and engagement with public/private sites, including federal, state, municipal and private entities. We continue to exceed the demands of our tenants and partners by targeting properties with high municipal interest in redevelopment, and often times in need of significant environmental remediation. Over the course of our diverse waterfront redevelopments and environmentally sensitive projects, River has built a unique ability to successfully navigate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, federal and state environmental agencies, and federal and local transportation agencies.
River and its affiliates have developed and/or purchased and managed garden apartment properties, grocery anchored shopping centers, and millions of square feet of national distribution and flex properties. Our portfolio of tenants includes global CPG brands, healthcare and pharmaceutical corporations, big box and ecommerce retailers, financial institutions, and US Governmental agencies.
We maintain a commitment to building lasting relationships with private and public stakeholders, development and management companies, design professionals, investors and lenders, and corporate tenants allowing us to execute on the highest and best level of planning, capitalization, development, and management of our projects. River approaches each project with the understanding that success is best achieved by combining the experience of our trusted partners and expertise from new, local partners with a strong history of serving the project region. Each of our projects is built with smart growth and sustainable development principles that aim to better the community functionally and economically. River Development continues its legacy as a primarily long hold owner/operator with a multi-generational approach to asset development and management.
A Portfolio of Diverse Real Estate Assets
With decades of experience, River Development has successfully delivered a wide range of real estate projects, including: