Real Estate Industry Breaks Up With Andrew Cuomo After Zohran Mamdani Win

New York City’s commercial real estate leaders are now looking to Mayor Eric Adams for salvation from Queens state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda.

The industry may have hoisted Andrew Cuomo upon its proverbial shoulders in his political comeback attempt by dumping money into his campaign coffers as soon as he announced his bid for mayor. But after Cuomo’s surprising loss to Mamdani on Tuesday night, they’re not betting on his return.

Cuomo conceded to Mamdani within two hours after polls closed in the Democratic primary. The democratic socialist backed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pulled ahead of Cuomo by nearly 8 percent after more than 80 percent of the first-choice votes in the city’s ranked-choice voting system were counted.

The Cuomo campaign seemed to rule out the chance of a reversal of fortune after a full count of the ballots, although some speculate Cuomo might stay in the mayoral race and run on the November ballot as an independent. Adams is already running for re-election as an independent. 

During his third term as New York governor, Cuomo resigned in disgrace in 2021 after a series of scandals, including sexual misconduct allegations and policies allowing senior citizens carrying COVID-19 to re-enter nursing homes. Following Tuesday’s primary defeat, few see him making a political comeback anytime soon.

“Cuomo would lose again,” GFP Real Estate Chairman Jeffrey Gural told Commercial Observer, speaking about the general election this November. “I think he had his chance, and, if he runs, it’ll ensure Mamdani wins because Eric and Andrew will split the anti-Mamdani vote. So if Andrew stays in, then the race is over, in my opinion. … I think he’s a team player and I think he recognizes that we don’t really want a socialist as mayor.”

Gural wasn’t alone in this opinion.

“Cuomo should abandon ship now because every signal — political, strategic and personal — suggests his presence in the general election serves only to fracture an already strained coalition of centrist and moderate voters,” Adelaide Polsinelli, vice chair at Compass, told CO. “His comeback effort, born more of personal vindication than the city’s salvation, lacks the momentum necessary to carry him through to a win. … It would allow those who still believe in the center to consolidate their voice and give Adams a cleaner shot at victory.”

Adams’s hands may not be clean of controversy. Early this year, the Trump administration dismissed federal corruption charges against the mayor, who appears to have become in turn an enthusiastic backer of Trump policies on undocumented immigrants. The twin moves seemed to preclude an already battered Adams from winning re-election in the heavily Democratic city, and commercial real estate started sizing up Cuomo’s chances. 

Mamdani’s win Tuesday changes all that. 

After all, the industry has enthusiastically supported Adams’s policies such as the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the most ambitious zoning law reforms in the city since the early 1960s. Real estate interests also supported Adams’s Midtown South plan to spur office-to-residential conversions and his appointment of Jessica Tisch as police commissioner, which some credit for a drop in violent crime.

Adams sat in the bleachers for the Democratic primary, claiming that the federal investigation had taken up too much time for him to focus on a campaign and prompting him to enter the race instead as an independent.

Adams took Cuomo’s loss as an opportunity to go on the offensive Wednesday morning during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” to call Mamdani a “snake oil salesman” who would “say anything to get elected.”

“You had one candidate that was running away from his record,” Adams said. “You had another candidate with no record. And you have Eric Adams with a record. I delivered for this city, and we’re not going backwards.”

Some of Mamdani’s promises include raising taxes on the wealthy to help pay for city-run grocery stores, free bus service, no-cost child care, a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments and a $30 minimum wage within the next few years. Many of the newly minted Democratic nominee’s policy proposals would require state approval.

“You know who has the authority to do that? An assemblyman, which he is,” Adams said.

Mamdani, Adams, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, a Republican, and independent Jim Walden are on the ballot in November.

The Cuomo and Mamdani campaigns did not respond to requests for comment.

But maybe Mamdani won’t spell the end of New York City capitalism, according to Travis Terry, CEO and founder of Immortal Strategies, a consulting firm that specializes in public-private partnerships.

“The real estate industry is contending with significant headwinds that extend beyond the control of any mayor, including rising costs driven by tariffs, economic uncertainty, and increasing global angst toward U.S. products and services,” Terry said. “As the campaign unfolds, it will be important to see whether Mamdani extends an olive branch to the business community, and, if elected, who he appoints to key positions.”

How a Mamdani administration plays out for real estate will hinge particularly on at least one key agency: the Economic Development Corporation (EDC).

“The EDC and other agencies have played a critical role in driving growth across the city, and there’s potential for continuity,” Terry said. “If his administration includes seasoned professionals, we can anticipate a more pragmatic and stable transition. Ultimately, collaboration is in everyone’s best interest, and I believe we’ll see that play out.”

However, if wealthy New Yorkers are looking for someone to blame for the precarious political situation pushing back on capitalism, there needs to be some self-reflection, according to Gural.

“The reality is that the gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen,” Gural said. “Those of us who have been lucky need to address the fact that we probably have to deal with the housing issues and try to level the playing field, because the gap is just too wide, and you have 1 percent of the people in the country controlling some crazy percentage of all the money. It’s really sad that people who’ve made a fortune in New York, who are billionaires, have moved to Florida to save on taxes.”

Gural compared the cost of using union labor on construction projects compared to nonunion, and the cost is “staggering.”

But keeping employees on low wages has societal impacts that affect the wealthy too, according to Gural.

“I think it’s important that we give people working for us a middle-class lifestyle and not have them cleaning offices, going home, and not having a decent place to live,” Gural said. “So I think [Mamdani’s victory] was inevitable.”

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