NYC Council Looking Into Taconic’s Innovation East Deal

Another corruption scandal involving commercial real estate may be brewing at City Hall.

The New York City Council launched an investigation into the redevelopment of 455 First Avenue in Kips Bay, the New York Daily News reported. Members of prominent committees fired off a letter to Mayor Eric Adams’ office this week, demanding records related to the Innovation East life science project.

In 2022, the city’s Economic Development Corporation selected Taconic Partners to redevelop the site into a 500,000-square-foot lab facility. It promises to be a valuable development in the city’s life science push.

Nate Bliss helps oversee the EDC as First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer’s chief of staff. Only three months before EDC made its selection, however, Bliss was a vice president of Taconic. Bliss was still receiving an income from Taconic when the deal was secured, NBC4 reported.

Bliss was also put in charge of the Land Development Corporation, which signs off on the development. The project is still winding its way through ULURP.

“The overlap between Mr. Bliss’ financial ties to Taconic, his roles at City Hall overseeing EDC and at LDC, and his involvement in projects like Innovation East raise significant concerns about potential conflicts of interest,” read the letter from Gale Brewer and Amanda Farias.

Bliss’ own financial disclosures show he received $100,000 to $250,000 from Taconic in the first few weeks of 2022; his first day at City Hall was Jan. 23. He’s still receiving payments from a Taconic-managed real estate investment fund.

A spokesperson for Adams said the mayor’s office was reviewing the letter. A Taconic representative called allegations of impropriety “baseless.” Brewer and Farias set a deadline of Monday for the documentation they requested to be turned over.

The probe is the latest black eye for Adams, who is fending off resignation rumors amid a public absence and a federal corruption indictment.

Jesse Hamilton, the deputy commissioner for real estate at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, is accused of pressuring Cushman & Wakefield to put Diana Boutross in charge of the company’s business dealings with the city, prompting a lawsuit from another brokerage.

— Holden Walter-Warner