Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani named 24 people to his transition committee on housing. Here are the real estate people who made the cut.
Mamdani started the week by naming more than 400 people to 17 different committees. The housing-related group includes nonprofit housing organizations, union reps, Yimby groups, religious leaders, tenant groups, private real estate developers and multifamily lenders.
Those representing the private side include:
- Real Estate Board of New York Chair and Two Trees Management CEO Jed Walentas
- L+M CEO Lisa Gomez
- M Squared COO Carolee Fink
- Merchants Capital vice chair Matt Wambua
- New York State Association for Affordable Housing President and CEO Carlina Rivera (a nonprofit that represents affordable housing developers)
The representatives from the private sector are largely affordable housing developers, though obviously REBNY represents various sectors in the industry. The committee doesn’t include leaders from the landlord groups that mostly represent rent-stabilized owners, but it does include Rafael Cestero, CEO of the Community Preservation Corporation, who has been sounding the alarm about mounting distress in the city’s stabilized housing stock.
Some members of the committee are also veterans of the de Blasio and Bloomberg administrations. Gomez was a senior vice president at the city’s Housing Development Corporation under Bloomberg.
Fink was chief of staff to Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen during the de Blasio administration. Before that, she was executive vice president and chief development officer of the city’s Economic Development Corporation. She also was a senior advisor to Deputy Mayor Robert Steel under Bloomberg.
Wambua headed the Department of Housing Preservation and Development under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Before that, he was executive vice president of the New York City Housing Development Corporation and had served as a senior policy advisor for Dan Doctoroff, deputy mayor for economic development.
(If the name Merchants rings a bell: My colleague wrote about Merchants’ parent company, Merchant Bank, which lent to a number of people who were charged as part of a federal mortgage fraud probe. During the second quarter, the bank recorded write-downs for 14 customers totaling $46.1 million in the second quarter this year, citing fraud.)
The Partnership for New York’s Kathy Wylde was named to a separate committee focused on economic and workforce development.
On the tenant side, the committee includes New York State Tenant Bloc’s Cea Weaver, CAAAV’s Alina Shen, Legal Aid Society’s Adriene Holder, New York Communities for Change’s Olivia Leirer and Community Service Society’s Iziah Thompson.
Pro-housing policy reps include Open New York’s Annemarie Gray, Regional Plan Association’s Moses Gates and Paul Williams, executive director of the think tank Center for Public Enterprise.
Something else that is likely to catch the attention of the industry: At least five representatives from the Democratic Socialists of America were named to various committees.
What we’re thinking about: What issues do you think should be at the top of the agenda for the housing-focused transition committee? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Tuesday marks a largely forgotten November celebration known as “Evacuation Day,” which marked the day that British troops left Manhattan after the Revolutionary War in 1783.
Elsewhere in New York…
— A federal judge on Monday dismissed mortgage fraud charges against state Attorney General Tish James. Judge Cameron McGowan Currie wrote in an order that Lindsey Halligan, the acting federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia who charged James, was improperly appointed and had “no lawful authority to present the indictment.”
— ICYMI, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America voted against endorsing Council member Chi Ossé in his potential primary challenge to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, City & State reports. Through an online survey, 626 members voted against the endorsement, 555 voted in favor and 24 abstained. After the results of the vote were released, Ossé posted on X: “NYC DSA FOREVER ❤️ IM NOT GOING ANYWHERE.”
Closing Time
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Monday was $6.3 million for a pre-war co-op at 830 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side. Cathy Franklin, Alexis Bodenheimer, and Shannon Suydam with Corcoran had the listing.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $80.8 million for the 87,620-square-foot, 12-story office building at 322-326 Seventh Avenue in Chelsea. GDS Development Management completed the project in 2022 and was sold to Capstone Equities.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $8.5 million for a 2,723-square-foot condominium unit at 23 East 22nd Street in the Flatiron District. The Riback Team at Corcoran has the listing.
— Matthew Elo
