The New York primaries are tomorrow, and real estate would like a word.
Industry favorites in key races are up against challengers touting endorsements from influential groups like the Working Families Party and Democratic Socialists of America, with several getting a potential boost from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s personal backing.
It’s no surprise that major real estate players have been quietly investing money into some ideologically fraught races, angling to keep more progressive candidates off the Democratic line of the general election ballot. Direct donors with real estate industry ties include Two Trees CEO Jed Walentas, SL Green Management, as well as scions and spouses of the Tisch family, whose Loews Hotels empire gives them an outsized footprint in New York City with spending power across the boroughs.
Five-year incumbent Queens State Assembly member Jennifer Rajkumar, who’s facing DSA- and WFP-backed challenger David Orkin, has received $5,000 from Walentas, $4,500 from Alice Tisch and $3,000 from Sam Tisch, plus a $3,000 donation from an SL Green subsidiary. The Real Estate Board PAC and New York City District Council of Carpenters each chipped in $3,000 to her reelection campaign, which had faced allegations of election fraud related to forged signatures to appear on the ballot until a judge dismissed the legal challenge on procedural grounds in April.
SL Green and Alice Tisch also gave $3,000 to five-year incumbent Stefani Zinerman, another incumbent representing parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights in Brooklyn, facing a DSA- and WFP-endorsed challenge from Eon Huntley, who received $3,000 from Tenants PAC. Housing lawyer Michael Bailey is also running against Zinerman and Huntley.
Deed theft has been a major flash point in the district, after several high-profile arrests, including Council member Chi Ossé, occurred at a protest outside a Bed-Stuy brownstone embroiled in an ownership dispute involving district leader candidate Carmella Charrington.
Zinerman proposed a raft of legislation aiming to combat deed theft and strengthen protections for homeowners during the last legislative session. Huntley has aligned with the local Stop Deed Theft movement calling for a moratorium on sales and evictions tied to alleged deed theft, which Bailey also supports.
Extell Development Company chairman Gary Barnett contributed $50,000 and Two Trees sent its own $25,000 donation to Moving Brooklyn Forward, a PAC making independent expenditures to support Zinerman’s reelection. The IE committee has also raised $25,000 from developer Daniel Brodsky and $10,000 from RXR Realty CEO Scott Rechler, along with donations from Henry and Kamran Elghanayan, who respectively gave $25,000 and $12,500, with a family trust tossing in another $12,500.
Next NYC PAC, a real estate money magnet supporting campaigns against progressive challengers, has donated via Moving Brooklyn Forward and Westside Progress, another IE that has championed Stephanie Ruskay in her race against Eli Northrup, who counts Mayor Mamdani and pro-housing advocacy group Open New York among his endorsements.
Barnett gave $100,000 to Westside Progress this month, while Next NYC sent $500,000 in total donations to the pool of independent expenditures boosting Ruksay’s campaign against Northrup.
Both candidates for the Upper West Side seat have voiced support for relaxing environmental review to clear a path for more housing to be built in the district, also finding agreement on penalizing retail landlords for keeping storefronts vacant and supporting the pied-à-terre tax as a revenue raiser for policy programs.
Ruskay has drummed up direct contributions from a collection of real estate power players, many of whom have donated to candidates aligned with a pro-Israel platform, including $6000 from Alice Tisch and $3,000 from her husband Thomas Tisch, $2,000 from Fetner Properties CEO Hal Fetner and $1,500 from his wife Nina Fetner.
Further downtown, a battle for a coveted Lower Manhattan state senate seat between Grace Lee and Yuh-Line Niou has drawn real estate interest on both sides.
Assembly member Lee has gotten key donations from Alice Tisch, who gave $4,500 to her campaign, along with $5,000 each from 7G Group managing director Michi Jagarjian and the NYC District Council of Carpenters PAC. Extell’s Barnett this month gave $50,000 to Downtown for Change, a recently formed independent expenditure committee that has funneled a combined $233,000 to support Lee’s campaign.
Former Assembly member Niou secured $5,000 from maintenance and facade restoration company Platinum‘s CEO James Halpin. She also received $3000 from the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades’ political action and legislative education committee.
Niou and Lee agree that a proposed site in Chinatown slated for Manhattan’s only borough-based jail would be better used as space for affordable housing, but have distinct approaches to increase housing access. Lee hopes to fund the Housing Access Voucher Program, build social housing, and cap utility bills at six percent of income for low-income households. Niou prioritizes a Tax the Rich platform that would establish new tax brackets for those earning more than $500,000 a year.
What we’re thinking about: Do you think these races will be consequential for real estate, housing policy and development across New York neighborhoods? Send your thoughts to ben.miller@therealdeal.com and introduce yourself!
A thing we’ve learned: Early voting turned out 172,743 total voters, with Manhattan taking the top spot as of polls closing Sunday night. That’s less than half of the 384,338 early voters in last year’s primary contest for mayor and City Council seats. Election day on Tuesday may boost this year’s total significantly, but the numbers seen in last year’s race will be hard to match, even as Mamdani pounds the pavement with his slate of congressional and state legislative picks hoping to harness his historic voter turnout.
Elsewhere in New York…
— Budget negotiations aiming to set the city’s spending priorities for the year ahead are still ongoing, but several members of City Council are threatening to vote no on any budget that doesn’t offer relief for tenants whose emergency housing vouchers will expire this fall due to federal funding sunsetting, City Limits first reported. Expansion of the CityFHEPS voucher program and other subsidies are still being weighed against spending that would become necessary if thousands more families enter New York City’s shelters.
— Unpaid City Council interns launched their own campaign to get paid. While the City Council’s formal internship program pays $32 per hour, many interns are still unpaid for similar work that they do for some individual Council members and legislative caucuses, according to City & State.
— Mayor Mamdani signed an executive order calling on city agencies to boost worker protections during times of extreme heat, AMNY reports. “The workers building our skyline, delivering our packages, selling food on our street corners and keeping this city running deserve to come home safe at the end of every shift,” Mamdani said.
Closing Time
Residential: The most expensive residential sale recorded Monday was $21.8 million for 40 East 73rd Street. The Lenox Hill townhouse is 9,000 square feet. The Modlin Group has the listing.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial transaction was $108 million for 19 West 44th Street. Real estate investors Savanna sold the 18-story, 302,000-square-foot office building to Olmstead Properties with the help of a $91.4 million acquisition loan provided by Derby Lane Partners, per reports.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $21.5 million for 150 Charles Street, Unit M2. The West Village condo is 4,400 square feet. Serhant has the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit filed was for a proposed 56,615-square-foot, 16-story building at 673 West 187th Street in Washington Heights. Leandro Dickson of LND Architects is the applicant of record.
— Joseph Jungermann