Jim Whelan

REBNY brought on Whelan to right the ship after hitting an iceberg in 2019 — a drastic rent stabilization law that left the city’s marquee real estate organization in shock.

A seasoned political insider, Whelan was tasked with making sure something like that never happened again, and perhaps to roll it back. So far he’s batting .500.

While the train wreck of 2019 continues to wipe out tens of billions of dollars’ in multifamily value, Whelan helped declaw a similar measure known as good cause eviction in 2024.

To that end, he has tried to keep democratic socialists out of office, an effort that suffered a major blow when Zohran Mamdani was elected as mayor. But Mamdani and others on the left have embraced the call to build more housing, a positive sign for REBNY’s developer members.

Builders also got a boost from a tax break for office-to-residential conversions — a needed win after Whelan had to settle for an unfortunate compromise on one for ground-up multifamily.

Landlords remain on edge, however, as Mamdani scapegoats them for the building violations triggered by the 2019 law. REBNY also failed to stop the enactment of a rental broker bill that it is now challenging in court.

REBNY also represents residential agents and brokerages and runs the city’s residential listing service.

With such a variety of business interests among his members, who all tend to be unhappy about something, Whelan’s job is among the city’s most challenging. But he shows no signs of leaving it.

— Erik Engquist