Real Estate Mulls Mayoral Race Options

11 minutes read

With just two months until the general election, the real estate industry’s favorite candidate in the mayoral race is in flux.

Based on campaign and super PAC donations, the industry’s loyalties have shifted from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo before the primary to Mayor Eric Adams in the immediate aftermath to a mix of the two in the latest campaign finance filings. Now, if the race narrows, industry bigwigs will likely consolidate their support behind whoever remains to face off against Assembly member Zohran Mamdani.

That person may be Cuomo, following reports that the Trump administration has offered Adams and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa roles in the federal government.

Adams met with developer Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for the Trump administration, in Florida this week as part of talks about his potential future if he drops out of the race, The New York Times reported. The meeting was perhaps telling: Though a Democratic socialist as mayor would likely serve as a politically valuable target for Trump, New York real estate professionals — some old friends of the president, as noted by the Times — fear what a Mamdani administration’s policies will mean for their businesses.

The administration has reportedly dangled a role with the Department of Housing and Urban Development for Adams, according to Politico New York. The position offered is not clear (a source told Politico “director of cities,” which doesn’t appear to be a title). There is, however, a precedent for city officials serving as the agency’s regional director for New York and New Jersey. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio occupied the role under President Bill Clinton; Deputy Mayor Adolfo Carrión, for President Barack Obama administration; and former Council member Alicka Ampry-Samuel served under the Biden administration.

Of course, such a move would be a downgrade from overseeing a city of more than 8 million people. The Times reported that the administration was instead considering an ambassadorship for Adams.

Both Adams and Sliwa have denied plans to drop out of the race. During a press conference on Thursday, Adams told reporters, “I’ve never asked for a job with HUD, I’ve never been promised a job with HUD, I have not communicated with the president,” according to the City.

Developer Jeff Gural, who has donated to Cuomo and Adams and the respective super PACs backing their campaigns, said on Thursday that he’s hopeful that the general election will boil down to a competition between Mamdani and Cuomo.

“I think everybody agrees that if nobody drops out, Mamdani is going to win easily,” he said.

“I always thought Andrew would do a good job,” he added. “We were just blindsided that he would lose to Mamdani decisively.”

After Cuomo’s loss in the primary, Gural was among the real estate professionals who turned their attention back to Adams’ campaign. But the mayor lagged in the polls and corruption cases against his inner circle continued to pile up, even as he escaped federal charges himself.

Independent Jim Walden dropped out of the race this week, which helped “marginally,” said Kenny Burgos, head of the New York Apartment Association, but anything other than a one-on-one competition between Mamdani and another candidate will be an uphill battle. He said he met with Mamdani after the primary.

“While I’m not hopeful for the freeze conversation to go away, if I’m hopeful for anything, it’s a renewed conversation of the city’s broken property tax system,” Burgos said.

A developer who recently attended a meeting with Mamdani noted that the real estate industry doesn’t have a singular view of the mayoral race. While rent-stabilized owners fear Mamdani’s pledge to freeze rents for four years, affordable housing developers are encouraged by his promise to beef up the city’s housing agency and increase capital available for housing construction.

The developer went on to say that, given that Mamdani is the Democratic nominee and likely best positioned to win in November, affordable housing professionals want to be part of conversations about who should lead the city’s housing-related agencies and the administration’s priorities.

“He’s an open-minded guy,” the person said. “I think he’s still learning a lot about this. It seems that he wants to learn.”