Public Advocate candidate didn’t tell ethics commission about his luxury condos or upstate house

A Queens candidate for the city’s Public Advocate has failed to report his ownership of multiple luxury properties to a state ethics agency.

Ron Kim, who is one of 17 Democrats vying for the position vacated by Letitia James, now the Attorney General, has registered his voting address at a modest home on Ash Avenue in Queens since 2014, but made a series of real estate purchases the same year that suggest it’s not his primary address, Crain’s reported.

That same year, he reportedly purchased an apartment at the Sky View Parc luxury condo tower in Flushing for $1 million, in part aided by a $618,000 mortgage provided by Citibank and 421a tax abatement, bringing his annual city excise tax to below $100.

And then in 2017, Kim purchased another apartment in the adjacent complex, the Grand Sky View Parc, for $943,000, where he claimed the co-op/condo abatement the following year and took another property tax reduction — a benefit only given if it is the owner’s primary residence.

He also reportedly purchased an upstate home in Poughkeepsie for close to $632,000 that year, and property records list the condo at Sky View Parc Luxury Condominium Tower as his own.

During this time, the assemblyman ran for city council three times and listed his primary home address at Ash Avenue. Each of the other properties were not reported to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, as required.

A spokesperson for Kim told the outlet that the homes are all used by his family members, and that he primarily lives at the Ash Avenue location.

“As anyone with elderly immigrant parents and young children can attest, it is a major challenge to juggle family obligations with the rest of life’s responsibilities,” the spokesperson told Crain’s. [Crain’s] — David Jeans