Chinks have begun to show in Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s armor.
The property tax proposal was the biggest. When he said, I don’t want to do this, but your property tax will go up 9.5 percent unless the state taxes the rich, what everyone heard was, Rather than cut unnecessary spending, I’m going to raise your property taxes.
The entire political establishment immediately leapt at the chance to say “Over my dead body!” Elected officials love to play the savior, especially when they don’t actually have to do anything. They knew balancing the budget was the mayor’s burden.
City tax revenue keeps going up, so the “budget crisis” is really about projected spending growth. I’m sure Mamdani will close the gap mostly by cutting that. Few will feel any pain if he cuts in the right places. But people will remember his tax threat.
A second chink in the armor was blowback over his affordable housing fantasy in Sunnyside.
I’m not talking about the well-deserved criticism about spending $21 billion just for a deck to support 12,000 homes. It matters not that it would be free money from the feds. That’s $1.75 million per home — without even building any! Add in the apartments and the price would be $2.5 million apiece.
(Yes, I know he said it would include health clinics and other stuff. But lest we forget, his housing plan during the campaign called for union-built homes at $500,000 apiece. Sunnyside would cost five times more.)
Rather, I’m talking about the political blowback — criticism from Queens leaders who got their panties in a bunch because Mamdani pitched President Donald Trump instead of them.
My first thought was: Cry me a river. These progressives had their chance to craft a Sunnyside housing plan in 2018 and they blew it. They insisted on letting the “community” drive the process, which led to infighting, absurd demands and the most popular person in Queens — AOC — being chased off the advisory panel.
The activists were far more interested in enforcing ideological purity tests than building housing. And so they ended up with nothing.
But what’s noteworthy this time is that people such as Council member Julie Won chose to blast Mamdani. When Andrew Cuomo was at the height of his power, no Democrat dared do that (Flushing Assembly member Ron Kim was the first, over Cuomo’s nail salon crackdown). If Mamdani doesn’t bear his teeth except to smile, this kind of thing will keep happening.
What we’re thinking about: It’s possible to build a New York City hotel with a unionized workforce without paying the same high wages as luxury hotels. It requires convincing an “independent” — but union-affiliated — body that the hotel would not otherwise pencil out. It can work in the city’s weaker markets. But has anyone attempted this since the Hotel Trades Council won a special permit requirement from the de Blasio administration? Send your thoughts to eengquist@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: The city of Albany is poised to undo a 2023 housing affordability law that stopped multifamily development cold (except for tiny projects). “Albany comes to its senses” was the headline of Chris Churchill’s Times Union column on the reversal. Credit goes to the new mayor, Dorcy Applyrs, for getting the City Council on board. The previous mayor, Kathy Sheehan, had vetoed the overly optimistic law, only to be overridden.
Elsewhere…
Yesterday’s Daily Dirt noted that Building and Construction Trades Council President Gary LaBarbera calls state Labor Law 240 “a beacon of construction site safety and contractor accountability.”
But what about worker accountability? New York is the only state where workers bear no responsibility for gravity-related accidents. It seems to me that makes them less safe, not more. By driving up insurance costs, it also results in them getting less work.
Closing time
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Tuesday was $12.8 million for a 3,811-square-foot, sponsor sale condominium unit at The Henry, 211 West 84th Street on the Upper West Side. Alexa Lambert, Alison Black and Elizabeth Goss of Compass had the listing.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $54.5 million for a 7,900-square-foot retail space at 690 Madison Avenue. The Real Deal reported on the sale by SL Green and Jeff Sutton to Richemont, Van Cleef & Arpels’ corporate parent.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $20 million for a 6,355-square-foot condominium at 150 Nassau Street in the Financial District. Nick Gavin, Ugo Russino and Allie Fraza of Compass have the listing. The penthouse last traded for $6.6 million in 2007.
— Matthew Elo
