It is no secret that the real estate industry is not Zohran Mamdani’s biggest fan.
In fact, landlords have spent millions of dollars supporting former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in part because they see the mayoral race whittling down to a two-way race between him and Mamdani, and they desperately do not want to see a socialist in Gracie Mansion.
Mamdani, currently a state Assembly member, has pledged to freeze rents for stabilized tenants, borrow $70 billion to subsidize 200,000 “genuinely affordable homes” over the next 10 years and pay for it by raising $10 billion in revenue through raising the corporate tax rate and adding a 2 percent income tax on those making more than $1 million a year. Such taxes would require state approval, as would racking up additional debt. The city’s Rent Stabilization Board decides allowable rent increases on stabilized apartments, but Mamdani has pointed to previous mayors’ influence over the board (the board froze rents three times during the de Blasio administration, after the mayor publicly called for it).
He also wants to create a new city office to combat deed theft, and wants to rebuild the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants (which was hollowed out in 2023 and then rebranded as the Tenant Protection Cabinet last year).
Mamdani has also called for building more housing in parts of the city that have historically not contributed their fair share, and has said that he wants to address carveouts in the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, including areas where parking minimums for new construction were maintained.
I am posing the same five questions to all mayoral contenders, as part of a question-and-answer series that will run in this newsletter. The first featured Sen. Zellnor Myrie, followed by Comptroller Brad Lander, Scott Stringer and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.
The five questions in this series are meant to be a vibe check, of sorts, on how candidates think about the real estate industry and its place in the political ecosystem of New York. The first three candidates completed their interviews in person or on the phone. Adams and Mamdani completed theirs via email* after multiple requests for a phone call or brief in-person Q&A.
What is your most innovative housing idea?
I will freeze the rent for the more than two million New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized units. This
won’t be the first time a mayor has ever frozen the rent—Mayor de Blasio did so three times
during his two terms—but I will enter City Hall with a mandate to do so, a first for New York City.
In addition, I will increase density around mass transit hubs, end the requirement to build
parking when constructing housing and upzone wealthier neighborhoods that have historically
not contributed to citywide housing goals.
What do you think is missing from your opponents’ plans for housing?
Andrew Cuomo’s platform is missing a plan, a vision or any concrete details as to what he’ll
actually do to build housing for New Yorkers. He makes no commitment on how much low
income housing he will deliver. His fuzzy math would leave New Yorkers with more luxury units
and pied-à-terres and fewer affordable units that we actually need.
Cuomo’s threats to cut Housing Preservation & Development would slow affordable housing development. Cuomo also opposes increasing density in neighborhoods that have resisted the construction of affordable housing or other developments in the past. It is impossible to build the hundreds of thousands of new units our city needs while also pandering to this not-in-my-backyard approach to housing.
How would you describe real estate’s role in shaping policy in New York?
Real estate has been incredibly influential in shaping policy in our city. Our current housing
construction has been bogged down by regulations and member deference, which flattens
decisions that impact the entire city to questions of political calculus with council members
negotiating with individual developers project by project. My administration will reform our
disjointed planning and zoning processes to create a vision for affordability, equity and growth.
This will allow NYC both to address the legacy of racially discriminatory zoning and to
proactively plan for the health and needs of the city.
You’ve pledged to not take donations from the real estate industry. Can you explain your reasoning for that?
I do not take donations from the real estate industry because for too long real estate has
dictated policy in New York City. Billionaire real estate donors installed Donald Trump into the
White House, and they’re trying to put Andrew Cuomo into Gracie Mansion, too. These donors
know that when they call Trump or Cuomo, both will ask how they can help. But I want to make
clear that I answer to everyday New Yorkers, not the billionaires.
Why should people in the real estate industry vote for you?
I am the candidate who takes the housing crisis most seriously. I am committed to unleashing the power of the public sector at a scale not seen since our city was building Mitchell-Lama housing to support everyday New Yorkers: I will build 200,000 new homes over the next decade, investing $100 billion to do so. At the same time, I believe that the private sector is critical to meeting the scale of the housing crisis. I believe we must build, we must build quickly and we must build using every tool at our disposal. That means when private developers come to me with a plan that meets our goals around affordability, rent-stabilization, union labor and sustainability, it will be fast-tracked through land use review. The days of the city slowing projects down are over.
*Email lacks the human touch of an actual, real-life conversation. It is never the preference for interviews.
What we’re thinking about: The state legislative session is over, and so it is time to think about the next session. What real estate-related issues do you think will be the top priority for lawmakers? What issues do you hope they prioritize? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: The City Planning Commission on Wednesday advanced plans to rezone 42 blocks in Midtown South, which would pave the way for the construction of 9,700 housing units over the next 10 years. The rezoning, if approved, will be the first to take advantage of the state lifting the cap on residential density in the city. The proposal allows residential projects to be 15 or 18 times larger than their lot sizes.
After the vote, City Planning Chair Dan Garodnick told TRD that he was “very encouraged by the overwhelming support from the City Planning Commission today.” The proposal now heads to the City Council for a final vote.
Midtown South is essentially the bar for mapping districts that allow a residential floor area ratio of 15 or 18. If the City Council can’t map that kind of residential density in Midtown, already home to much larger office towers, what hope is there for getting consensus elsewhere?
Garodnick would not make predictions on whether the Council will make changes to the rezoning nor what significant changes would mean for the chances of mapping R11 and R12 districts elsewhere in the city. But he said it is “unfathomable,” given the need for more housing, that the city’s own rules should prevent developers from building in Midtown South.
“New high-density residential districts will very much match the scale, and will not appear to be out of whack in this area,” he said. “This is the right moment and the right area for us to use these important tools.”
Elsewhere in New York…
— A new report by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found that cleanup at some brownfield sites enrolled in an incentive program has been delayed for years, the Times Union reports. The audit reviewed 518 of the 669 active brownfield sites in the state as of October 2023, and found that 86 have been in the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program for more than a decade.
— In the first four days of early voting in the Democratic primary, turnout doubled compared to 2021, Gothamist reports. The news site found that 131,434 people cast ballots, with younger voters and white voters in brownstone Brooklyn leading the turnout.
Closing Time
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Wednesday was $19.9 million for a 3,889-square-foot, sponsor-sale condominium unit at 50 West 66th Street in Lincoln Square.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $37.6 million for a 23,703-square-foot building at 1101 Oak Point Avenue in Hunts Point. Bridge Investment Group purchased the property from Frito-Lay, which was using the property as a distribution center.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $20 million for a co-op unit at 781 Fifth Avenue in Lenox Hill. The Richard Steinberg Team at Compass has the listing.
— Matthew Elo
