“News” is something important that happens. It can also be something that doesn’t.
If Mayor Zohran Mamdani does not attempt to get the City Council to override Eric Adams’ veto of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, that would be news.
I say this because Mamdani has been a big proponent of COPA and its equivalent bill in Albany, TOPA (Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act). The bills, heavily opposed by the real estate industry, would stall sales of multifamily buildings for months to give tenants and nonprofits a better chance to buy them.
At this writing, Mamdani is just a few votes away from getting it enacted by the City Council. COPA passed with 30 votes and needs 34 to override the veto. (Eleven of the Council’s 51 members took office after the initial vote.)
In theory, it should not be hard for a popular new mayor coming off a resounding election victory — and a successful handling of his first blizzard — to flip a few votes in the 51-member Council.
But Mamdani has a lot of reasons not to even try on COPA.
For one thing, he doesn’t want to big-foot new Council Speaker Julie Menin in the first month of their tenures. He just patched up their relationship and is going to need her for the next four years. Menin abstained from December’s COPA vote and doesn’t seem at all motivated to marshal votes to override the veto.
Second, Mamdani’s base, including the Democratic Socialists of America, does not seem to be pushing for him to override the veto — even though COPA has been a DSA dream for some time.
DSA often advocates for ideological bills, but has enough sense not to demand that its handful of elected members fall on their swords in an effort to pass them.
Third, there’s a racial and religious dynamic of which Mamdani must be very mindful: City Council member Darlene Mealy rounded up opposition to COPA by arguing it would be unfair to Black and Jewish landlords. That’s in large part why it fell short of a 34-vote “veto-proof” majority.
Mamdani’s issues with conservative Jews have been well documented and he has been criticized for not naming any Black deputy mayors. “It has become a problem,” a New York Times headline declared.
His failure to appoint a single Black deputy mayor came despite his desire to shore up support in heavily Black areas, where he got only 29 percent of the Democratic primary vote last June. This would not be a good time for him to anger Black and Jewish landlords, who are already furious about his call for a four-year freeze on stabilized rents and his pending “rental ripoff” hearings.
Fourth, if he tries to override the veto and fails, that would show political weakness, especially after he tried and failed to stop Menin from becoming speaker. The optics of a second defeat in two months would be bad, and it would make it harder for him to win other battles.
For those reasons, it looks like my colleague Kathryn Brenzel’s story Monday was spot on: COPA is DOA.
What we’re thinking about: I misunderstood a sentence in a TRD story to mean that Summit Properties is raising money on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange for its purchase of the Pinnacle portfolio. That is not the case, according to a Summit spokesperson. The TASE disclosures it filed about the Pinnacle deal were to provide transparency for potential investors in an unrelated Summit investment.
I was trying to estimate Summit’s potential return on investment for the Pinnacle acquisition. To do that, one would divide its annual profit by the $112.8 million it is contributing to the $451.3 million purchase. My rough calculation comes to 11 percent. Send your thoughts to eengquist@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Many apartment leases in Germany require tenants to open their windows several times a day, “even — or especially — in winter,” the Washington Post reported in a story about the practice, called lüften. “German courts have ruled that, absent specific landlord guidance, a tenant is required to open windows twice a day, morning and evening, for 10 minutes each.” Via TikTok, the practice has spread to America, where it’s called “house burping.”
Elsewhere…
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, perhaps the most pro-housing elected official in the city, told Gothamist that if a City Council member asks him to sustain the Council’s rejection of new housing, “there has to be a scientific reason why either you’re going to kill the project or have a substantial reduction in the unit counts.”
Richards and the other borough presidents have become relevant in land-use approvals again by virtue of a City Charter revision passed by voters in November.
Richards knows that when NIMBYs oppose a project or rezoning, their rationale is less scientific than emotional (fear of change) or financial (keeping housing scarce increases their homes’ value).
They do often present a scientific reason, but not based on any data, such as “the sewer system cannot handle it” or “the streets will be gridlocked.” Which makes it pseudo-science. Richards has undoubtedly noticed that ordinary citizens suddenly become infrastructure experts when faced with the prospect of new neighbors.
Closing time
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Tuesday was $24.3 million for a 4,997-square-foot, sponsor-sale condominium unit at 20 East 76th Street on the Upper East Side.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $8 million for a 17-unit apartment building at 44 Perry Street in the West Village.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $10 million for a pre-war co-op at 820 Park Avenue in Lenox Hill. Daniella G. Schlisser, Justin J. Pak and Gigi Ozdemir with Brown Harris Stevens have the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit filed was for a proposed 43,127-square-foot, 79-unit residential building at 9528 147th Place in Jamaica. Leandro Dickson filed the permit on behalf of Herman Jacob.
— Matthew Elo