Adams Administration Looks to Reduce NYC’s Office Footprint

The Adams administration has plans to seal the hatch on the city’s unused office space, but it’s anyone’s guess how much the city will reduce its footprint.

Mayor Eric Adams quietly instructed the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) to find and part with redundant offices being leased by city agencies, raising fears that the administration may be looking at workforce reductions in the near future.

Politico first reported the story.

Referred to in internal memos as the “Citywide Space Savings Task Force,” the initiative has been labeled as a “mayoral priority” led by Jesse Hamilton, a former New York state senator turned DCAS deputy commissioner for real estate services, according to Politico. 

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the amount of space that could be targeted or any potential office addresses, nor is it clear if there will be reductions in the city’s 300,000-person mostly unionized workforce.

DCAS said the effort is in its early stages and compared itself to the many other private companies with office space in the city looking to streamline footprints following the pandemic.

“We are constantly evaluating our use of space in order to maximize effectiveness and cost-savings for taxpayers,” DCAS spokesperson Dan Kastanis said in a statement. “Currently, we are working with our sister agencies to reevaluate office needs as we work to reduce redundancies and streamline operations. But, to be clear, we are still in the early stages of this effort and are still compiling data.”

The city currently leases 22 million square feet across 380 individual leases, according to DCAS.

Adams has been fixed on office leasing as a cost-cutting measure since before he took office, pitching in April 2021 that his administration would reduce the $1.1 billion the city was spending on rent at the time by moving agencies from Manhattan to the outer boroughs.

And the news of potential shakeups to the city’s office footprint isn’t the only shift for its real estate Adams is eyeing.

The Adams administration announced earlier in the week that it would try to facilitate the building of 500,000 new homes by 2032 by taking an inventory of all municipal-owned land that could be turned into housing.

Some potential sites for housing include branches of the New York Public Library and Department of Sanitation garages on Staten Island and the Bronx, according to the mayor.

Update: This story was updated to include a statement from DCAS.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.