Landlords and Developers: We LOVE Eric Adams!
Every year Commercial Observer puts out an Owners Magazine (it’s coming out on Nov. 16) where we look to the latest national and local political contests and throw in a related question — mostly to rattle our respondents and see who has the nerve to answer.
Consensus is usually pretty fleeting when it comes to political candidates. While there have been blowouts before, most won’t venture an opinion. (Last year a little more than half weighed in on the presidential election — an unprecedented response rate — with 45 percent supporting now-President Biden and 6 percent supporting now-former President Trump.)
But this doesn’t seem to be Eric Adams’ problem.
CO surveyed 41 owners ahead of the mayoral contest on Tuesday. Republicans and Democrats alike love this guy. “Eric Adams, Eric Adams, Eric Adams,” said Jonathan Kaufman Iger when asked which candidate he preferred.
Seventy-eight percent of the landlords polled said that they were supporting the Democrat over Curtis Sliwa. And that number could have been higher as many owners didn’t land squarely on a side. (“Seriously?” asked Winston Fisher. Which, unfortunately, we’ll have to score as a spoiled ballot because nowhere did he indicate Adams was his choice.)
“Always go with the vegan ex-cop over the guy living in a 320-square-foot studio with 16 rescue cats,” advised David Kramer.
GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa — to our surprise — did not get a single vote. (Although a few owners had a couple of nice things to say about him, and Keith Rubenstein proposed him for chief of police.)
We suspect that in addition to the fact that Adams positioned himself as more business-friendly than the more radical progressives in the Democratic primary — but not so fiscally conservative as to be dubbed a Republican — he represents a new beginning for a lot of owners who didn’t have the best things to say about the current holder of the mayoralty.
But, along with a new beginning with a new mayor, there is another breath of optimism in the air regarding the future.
Very, very few of the owners surveyed in our Owners Magazine said that the last time they traveled was March of 2020. They instead have been traveling domestically and internationally throughout the pandemic, or at least during the past (post-vaccine) few months. They are taking face-to-face meetings. And there is a strong consensus that the market is much healthier than the dreariest predictions during the pandemic.
While there is a certain hard-nosed realism about the fact that we’re not out of the wilderness yet, there is a sense that we’re almost there.
“The COVID-19 experience proved, once again, just how resilient New York City can be — we not only bounce back from crises, but we find ways to reinvent our city into something that was better than before,” Scott Rechler said. “The post-COVID recovery is an opportunity for the beginning of a new renaissance for New York City. … Our streets are filled, our parks are filled and our restaurants are filled once again.
“The lights on Broadway are shining bright and domestic tourists are coming in droves,” he added. “And, as travel restrictions are finally lifted in November, we should expect even more people wanting to visit our great city.”
