Besides last names, what do City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Mayor Eric Adams have in common?
Both of their tenures began in promising fashion for the real estate industry, only to be tarnished at the end — albeit in entirely different ways.
The speaker’s flameout was nowhere near as dramatic as the mayor’s, and it involved not corruption but screwing the real estate industry — and housing-starved New Yorkers.
More drama lies ahead, assuming the mayor vetoes the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act and perhaps the Construction Justice Act and affordable housing bill Intro 1443-A as well. A COPA veto would likely not be overridden.
Adrienne Adams’ speakership began with a groundbreaking statement to the New York Times: “I reject that this will be a Council that says no to housing, given the scale of the crisis we face.” For three years, she kept that promise by pushing through spot, neighborhood and citywide rezonings.
That was big, because the mayor’s indictment and bromance with President Donald Trump had left him without the political capital to do any heavy lifting.
But this fall, the speaker tarnished her housing legacy by trying to get voters to reject City Charter revisions that will make it easier to build housing, especially in districts that have allowed very few new units.
I get that she was defending the Council’s power, but the measures — which passed — will advance her own fair-housing goals. And she funded her campaign against them with taxpayer money, which was legally questionable at best.
Then came last week’s votes. COPA was weakened by amendments, but would still require a new, unwieldy bureaucracy at the city’s already overburdened housing agency to enforce a law that would hamstring multifamily sales.
And to what benefit? Its own sponsor, Council member Sandy Nurse, admitted that COPA would create only a “tiny chance” for buildings to be purchased by capable nonprofits.
The Construction Justice Act, for its part, will raise the cost of affordable housing, which already is much more expensive to build than market-rate. That will result in fewer units. So will Intro 1443-A, which mandates even lower rents and tenant incomes in city-funded housing, and another bill requiring such developments to have more bedrooms.
To review: In a span of three months, the speaker fought City Charter revisions and passed COPA and three bills slashing affordable housing production. Fewer homes, more bureaucracy. That’s a helluva way to go out.
What we’re thinking about: Will Southampton’s new overlay district really lead to more affordable housing, given that projects will still have to endure a public hearing (where locals will yell “not in my back yard!”) and need individual approval by the town board? Send your thoughts to eengquist@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Asked who will be a rising star in 2026, Partnership for New York City’s Kathy Wylde named NYSAFAH’s recently hired Carlina Rivera, “because she is going to bring unprecedented political savvy to the affordable housing industry.” NYSAFAH, which represents affordable housing providers, is known more for industry expertise than for legislative influence.
Elsewhere…
Heatherwood, a Long Island builder that was betrayed by the Town of Hempstead a year ago on a transit-oriented development, just got some good news from the Hochul administration about another project on the peninsula.
The state picked Douglas Patrick’s firm to build 495 homes on state-owned land in East Farmingdale. The 13-acre property has been “vacant and blighted” for decades, according to a press release from Gov. Kathy Hochul.
That will alleviate some of the pain the developer experienced when Hempstead left Heatherwood at the altar last December.
The town had rezoned 11.7 acres for multifamily housing in 2019 and its industrial development agency endorsed Heatherwood’s 309-unit project in 2021.
But after the developer paid $27 million for the land and $3 million on soft costs, Hempstead repealed the zoning in response to fanatical NIMBYism from nearby residents. The town was left with a cavity instead of housing next to its Long Island Rail Road station in Lawrence — and two lawsuits filed by Heatherwood in state court.
The company won its cases in state court (appeals are pending), then brought a federal lawsuit this fall seeking its $30 million back plus $160 million in lost profits.
Hochul has had her own problems with anti-development forces on Long Island, where officials led the “local control, not Hochul control” campaign that stopped her Housing Compact in 2023. But East Farmingdale is rezoning to accommodate her project, which will include more than 100 homes affordable to households earning 80 percent of the area median income.
Closing time
Residential: The top home sale recorded in New York City was a condo at 67 Vestry Street for $15.3 million. The 3,000-square-foot pad has four bedrooms and three and a half baths. Corcoran’s Catherine Juracich, Tom Ventura and Lesley Schulhof had the listing.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was for an 88,000-square-foot industrial building at 845 East 136th Street in the Bronx for $21.7 million.
— Mary Diduch