City Council Grills DCAS Over City Leases

Wearing a hard hat and flanked by two other city officials, Jesse Hamilton stood before Turnbridge Equities’ under-construction Bronx warehouse and touted its size and its environmental bona fides in a promotional video.

“We’re here at the Bronx Logistics Center. It is a phenomenal place, 1.3 million square feet, which can accommodate a lot of the city agencies,” said Hamilton, the deputy commissioner of real estate services at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. “It’s a state of the art industrial space warehouse, which has a Platinum LEED Certification.”

He goes on to say, “I’m sure this is a win-win for everybody involved.”

A month after Mayor Eric Adams was indicted, and with various probes of potential corruption in his administration continuing, the video was shown at a tense City Council hearing Tuesday on the leasing practices of Hamilton’s agency.

Council members questioned the propriety of Hamilton promoting a private property, especially one that DCAS is considering purchasing.

“I think it is bizarre, and frankly, smells funny,” Council member Lincoln Restler said.

It was one of a few revelations at the hearing that raised questions about whether Hamilton has influenced city leases, a possibility authorities are exploring as they investigate the Adams administration.

DCAS Commissioner Louis Molina acknowledged at the hearing that he, Hamilton and brokers from Cushman & Wakefield, including Diana Boutross, met in DCAS’ office Oct. 8 to discuss buying the logistics center for $670 million, a deal that would net the brokers up to $13.6 million in commissions.

The agency has not received permission from the city’s budget office to acquire the property, Molina said.

Hamilton did not appear in person at the hearing. Molina said he had not previously seen the video, but would later review it in full. Turnbridge did not return a request for comment.

Grilled by Council members, Molina said the video, which starts off clumsily and appears to be of low quality, was not produced by DCAS.

Restler, who chairs the Committee on Governmental Operations, State & Federal Legislation, underscored Hamilton’s lack of experience in commercial real estate — aside from his “personal and political connection to the mayor” — before being named by the mayor to oversee a portfolio of 22 million square feet.

Investigators from the Manhattan district attorney’s office seized Hamilton’s phone in September as he returned from a trip to Japan with Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a top Adams adviser, and Boutross, whose phones were also seized. The action was reportedly part of an investigation into the city’s leasing of commercial properties.

At the end of 2022, Boutross took over as the account manager for Cushman & Wakefield’s tenant representative contract with the city, after fellow broker Robert Giglio retired. Restler questioned Boutross’ qualifications for the role, given that she had been focused on retail rather than office leasing.

“It is unusual for someone with zero relevant experience to be selected to run such an important account,” he said. Boutross is a friend of Lewis-Martin’s, Politico reported.

A former DCAS general counsel warned that the “optics” of choosing 14 Wall Street over 250 Broadway “might look troubling”

Molina said it was up to the brokerage to select an account manager and said he was not aware of any influence Hamilton may or may not have had in her appointment. A representative for Cushman did not return a request seeking comment.

Restler also asked Molina about Hamilton’s vacation to Japan with Boutross, the account holder for a multimillion-dollar contract overseen by Hamilton. Restler said the trip appeared “unseemly” and “inappropriate,” but Molina said Hamilton did not violate agency rules.

Much of the hearing focused on reports that Hamilton steered a city lease to Alexander Rovt’s 14 Wall Street despite AmTrust Realty’s apparently winning bid for 250 Broadway to headquarter the Department for the Aging. Rovt and his family members have repeatedly donated to Adams, including $15,000 to his legal defense trust in December.

Molina acknowledged that a former DCAS general counsel warned that the “optics” of choosing 14 Wall Street over 250 Broadway “might look troubling” but was not illegal.

Molina said selecting 14 Wall Street would save the city $31 million, including $10 million in capital improvements that would be needed at 250 Broadway to accommodate the Department for the Aging’s needs. Molina said these considerations outweighed the potentially bad optics of the choice, and said he was unaware at the time that Rovt was a donor to the mayor.

The commissioner noted that the selection of a building for a city lease is not subject to the same rules of competition as other city procurements, and that negotiations were still “fluid” before 14 Wall Street was selected.

He said no one person at DCAS has “complete authority or autonomy” in completing real estate deals. Once DCAS selects a building and drafts a lease, the agreement is reviewed by the City Planning Commission, the City Council and then approved by the mayor.

Molina said he has reviewed the 14 Wall Street lease but has not audited all of Hamilton’s work. While discussing Tuesday’s hearing at a press conference, the mayor said that First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer is conducting an “overall review.” Comptroller Brad Lander told The City that his office has launched an audit of city leasing.

In the meantime, DCAS is looking to expand the number of brokerages it works with from two — CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield — to five. Molina indicated that a request for proposals for what is going to likely be a highly scrutinized gig should be released by the end of the year.