Paul Massey says he’ll be the on-time mayor

If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late. And if you’re late, don’t even bother showing up.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Paul Massey took Mayor Bill de Blasio to task for his reputation for being tardy as the real estate exec ramps up his campaign to unseat the Democratic incumbent.

“I’ve been at my desk at 6:45 a.m. for 30 years,” Massey said Wednesday morning during a summit on real estate and technology, Politico reported. “It drives me nuts that the current mayor gets to work at 11:30 in the morning, he’s running an $82 billion organization, how is that happening?”

Massey’s story on his early arrivals to work seems to check out.

In a video posted on the Cushman [TRDataCustom] website this summer about his partner’s political aspirations, Bob Knakal recalled the earlier days of working side by side with Massey at the CBRE predecessor Coldwell Banker.

“We always competed to see who could get into the office first and the later of the two of us would be in by 6:30,” he said.

As the keynote speaker Wednesday at the MIPIM Proptech Summit, Massey said de Blasio’s administration “seems rudderless, marking time, muddling through, starting to pay attention to the next election but not executing and running the city.”

Massey offered support for charter schools and Uber and said the spirit of innovation that has defined the city for the past 20 years “stopped three years ago.” He reiterated a point he made during a forum last week that he would make affordable housing a key component of his campaign.

“We are stalled on the front of creating affordable housing,” he said. “But incentives can be put in place, that is my business, that benefit all constituents, tenants, landlords, development, where we can create massive amounts of affordable housing.” [Politico] – Rich Bockmann