Fifty days into Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty, the real estate industry’s worst fears have not been realized.
But give him time!
During the mayor’s race I wrote a bunch of columns criticizing Mamdani’s simplistic or unrealistic promises, while realizing that the point of campaigns is to win. Candidates with complicated, plausible proposals tend to lose, as Hillary Clinton could tell you.
I also felt that Mamdani would moderate his views, appoint some experienced and pro-housing people and try to govern, rather than let the Democratic Socialists of America take over City Hall, impose Sharia law and replace the Stars and Stripes at municipal buildings with Palestinian flags, as some paranoid people expected.
It looks like I got that right. The narrative matters to Mamdani, which is why he is resuming sweeps of homeless encampments, even if encampments were not the reason people died during the cold spell.
Where does all this leave real estate? Depends. If you’re an office landlord, a condo developer or an agent for luxury homes, you’re pretty happy. Commercial tenants are looking for space and wealthy buyers are more active than they were pre-Mamdani.
Clearly, there won’t be an apocalypse.
Unless you own a fully rent-stabilized building. Then you are at least as worried or desperate as you were before the election.
Because Eric Adams failed to appoint all of the Rent Guidelines Board members he could before leaving office, and reality-based member Alex Armlovich resigned Tuesday (citing a new job), Mamdani was able to bring in five of his own people and reappoint a sixth. It’s reasonable to assume that they will go through the motions of considering the data, then vote to do what Mamdani wants: freeze rents.
“I trust that they will consider all the factors facing the city’s rent-stabilized tenants and come to an appropriate decision,” Mamdani said in announcing the appointments.
The mayor conspicuously failed to mention that they are also required by law to consider the factors facing landlords.
The one “owner representative” he named — Maksim Wynn, who manages affordable and transitional housing development at Procida Development Group — used to work for the Department of Homeless Services and HPD. These are not landlords’ favorite agencies.
But at least Wynn must know how the RGB’s consistently below-inflation rent increases have squeezed buildings.
Mamdani bookended these appointments with a plan for “rental ripoff” dog-and-pony shows, a threat to raise property taxes and support for reviving the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act.
COPA would rub salt in the wounds of owners of distressed rental properties by making them wait 105 days to sell to the highest bidder — akin to Mamdani’s effort to stop the Pinnacle portfolio sale.
“Our administration looks forward to working closely with Council member [Sandy] Nurse to reintroduce and pass the legislation,” a Mamdani spokesperson told AMNY.
What we’re thinking about: A housing lottery listing for the dozen affordable apartments Cheskel Schwimmer’s 59-unit project at 554 West 46th Street says, “Pets up to 30 lbs are welcome, with no dangerous breeds permitted. Service animals are allowed as an exception.” So if you have a dangerous service animal, that’s OK. Send your thoughts on pet policies to eengquist@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: In only one of the 20 largest metro areas last quarter did homes sell for more than the asking price (on average), according to Redfin: San Francisco. The AI bonanza likely had something to do with that, along with optimism spurred by the new mayor, Dan Lurie. Lurie spoke with TRD last year for The Closing.
Elsewhere…
Will Islip Town, Nassau County and New York state manage to develop the land between the Ronkonkoma Long Island Rail Road station and MacArthur Airport? Not if they repeat the government infighting that has kept the Nassau Hub mostly vacant for years.
“We’ve got a glaring example of what not to do in Nassau,” Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter told Newsday. Ed Blumenfeld is one of several developers interested in the transit-oriented site. A mixed-use project would complement the spiffy new Station Yards development, which Tritec Real Estate and Olayan Group are building on the other side of the tracks.
Closing time
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Thursday was $9.4 million for a 4,888-square-foot, sponsor-sale townhouse at 40 East End Avenue in Yorkville. Leighton Candler and Jennifer Reardon with Corcoran had the listing.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $143 million for a 47,880-square-foot development site at 250 Water Street in the Financial District. The Real Deal reported on the trade by Seaport Entertainment Group to Tavros Capital in August.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $20 million for a 2,500-square-foot condo at 110 Central Park South. James Jeffrey Schoenfeld of Compass has the listing. The property last traded for $9.6 million in 2007.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permits filed were for a proposed 66,170-square-foot, five-story school at 2970 Third Avenue in Melrose. De-Jan Lu filed the permit on behalf of Shimon Kleinman of Borough Developers.
— Matthew Elo
