At Somos, Politics and Real Estate Enter a New Reality

16 minutes read

The annual Somos conference at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan brought together political animals, real estate heavyweights and labor leaders, making for a heady brew of interests vying for top priority across City Hall, Albany and even Washington policy agendas.

Dealmakers of every stripe congregated at the hotel’s Caribar — successor to the hotel’s Beachcomber Bar where the piña colada originated — for impromptu meetings and tipsy policy chats, while lobbyists clustered at tables on the patio to arrange agenda-setting sitdowns.

Somos attendees looking to unwind away from the conference gravitated to the swanky Fairmont El San Juan Hotel and Foxwoods Casino, where the New York Apartment Association’s Kenny Burgos held court by the bar and executives from Gotham, Kalel and Slate worked the room. Carlina Rivera, president of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing, who hosted a pool party at the Fairmont on Friday, glad-handed with Staten Island Council member and vocal fast-track opponent Frank Morano after hours along the lobby’s mahogany-paneled wall, while Assembly member-elect Eli Northrup connected with neighboring Congressman-elect Micah Lasher nearby, soundtracked by a live band rendition of “Oye Como Va” blaring from the Chico Cabaret stage.

One question permeated throughout: after a so-called Blue Tsunami, how would the state’s newly empowered political leaders address industry concerns while staying in line with their platform promises?

Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a raft of newly elected legislators sought to find middle ground between the interests, splitting their time between receptions hosted by major trade unions and industry-backed events, including a dinner put on by Steve Cohen’s casino megadevelopment Metropolitan Park.

Government officials tailored their messaging to fit the tenor of each occasion, amping up the pro-development talk at a panel on building to boost affordability, then stressing the importance of an organized workforce to guarantee fair wages and safety at the annual Labor Breakfast.

Mamdani drew parallels between Puerto Rico and New York City, voicing staunch opposition to a luxury housing and hotel project dubbed Esencia on the island facing a water shortage, while linking it to development dynamics playing out in the five boroughs.

“If we are facing a historic drought, how could we ever justify 1.5 million gallons a day to build luxury housing and hotels? How can we say there’s no money for union workers’ pensions in Puerto Rico when we have $500 million to build luxury hotels and housing?” Mamdani said at the Labor Breakfast. “If we want to stand up for the history and legacy of the Lower East Side in our city, we have to know that the same displacement and gentrification that we’re fighting there is the same displacement and gentrification that they’re fighting here.”

The night before, the mayor spoke at Metropolitan Park’s Leadership Reception, which showcased footage of the megadevelopment planned for Willets Point, still beset by community pushback. Mamdani has surprised some in the industry by embracing private development’s role in fulfilling his administration’s goal to build 200,000 affordable units over the next decade.

Hochul similarly toed the line, acknowledging that voters reelected her “to keep building more housing” and fund an expansion of universal childcare while also touting the pied-à-terre tax as a “dedicated revenue source with a specific purpose” at an offsite press conference. She also left the door open to more taxes going forward in a marked shift from her obstinate response to calls to tax the rich at last year’s conference.

“I’m telling you that I want to find a creative path to make sure we have the resources necessary to be able to have a long-term commitment to childcare,” Hochul said. “I don’t raise taxes for the sake of raising taxes … It is not ideological, it is pragmatic. And what we need to do is deliver for the people who put us in office.”

Post-election housing momentum

With the election in the rearview mirror, which Hochul won by nearly 20 percentage points with 1.2 million more votes than her Republican opponent Bruce Blakeman, speculation on whether the governor or the mayor would push 485x reform as a priority this year also swirled among lawmakers, lobbyists and officials gathered at Somos.

“It’s definitely something that we’ve heard about, and we’re always in conversation with labor,” Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su said. “It would require a whole lot of people to do that … as always, Gary LaBarbera.”

Though the Building and Construction Trades Council president didn’t attend Somos, his chief of staff Santos Rodriguez was in attendance, and the carpenters’ union hosted its annual pig roast at the conference, co-hosted by Assembly member Catalina Cruz. Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani flitted around the conference, talking shop with everyone from union members by the Caribar to architect Jonathan Marvel after their panel upstairs.

Newly minted Assembly member-elect Northrup will head to Albany, representing parts of the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights and West Harlem with a class of left-leaning election winners. The Working Families Party-backed Northrup beat out a candidate, Stephanie Ruskay, who received significant industry campaign dollars. But he argued that there isn’t much daylight between their platforms on the specific issue of housing affordability, which he sees as a unifier in policy conversations.

“There’s a broad understanding across the city and the state that we’re in a crisis when it comes to housing, and that building a lot more housing is totally necessary in order to take ourselves out of that crisis,” Northrup said. “I know that the people in my district feel a crunch of not being able to afford to be here. That was the story I was selling and my opponent in the primary was selling too, actually.”

Northrup, who vocally opposed a plan to redevelop West-Park Presbyterian Church shortly after winning his primary, struck a different tone after this week’s election win, welcoming the prospect of building more in his district and across the state as a common cause among lawmakers.

“There’s going to be 27 new Assembly members, and we’ve already started to chat with each other to build relationships. I hope that we can be a force, because when you have that many new people it can actually shift the body,” Northrup said. “But I think there’s an opportunity for unity, especially on housing.”

Even before swearing in, new electeds are retrofitting their popular affordability platforms with pragmatic approaches, bringing industry to the table and forging alliances at Somos in hopes of making projects happen in their districts, on their terms. Longtime lawmakers navigating a new political landscape also understand that showing face at certain events, mixers and meetings will help them influence what gets built, even in communities that routinely oppose development.

Council member Gale Brewer made sure to attend panels on rental assistance and construction, after having made her grievances clear when her Upper West Side district was designated among the affordable housing fast-track’s 12 lowest producing areas last month.

“We’re looking to do a developer roundtable on how we can say, ‘hey Mr. Mayor, it’s clear that you, the governor and everybody wants to build more housing,’” said Majority Whip Kamillah Hanks, who represents Staten Island’s North Shore on the Council. “Why are we not building housing? We are open to really explore and do our part in the housing crisis … there’s a lot of developers here who I’m talking to, and it’s time that we really had that honest conversation.”