Gary LaBarbera
President at Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York
Last year's rank: 94
Gary LaBarbera is adamant that his laborers should be able to afford to live in the homes they build.
Last year, he fought for wage increases for construction workers who labored on projects receiving state tax incentives, a key component of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s housing package. Negotiations stalled for weeks, resulting in a late budget, but LaBarbera credits his staff for preparing data to show that the wage levels he was proposing were feasible for projects in different neighborhoods to support them.
“It clarified our position, and then, on the real estate side, they were looking for certain things as well unrelated to 485x that had to be negotiated,” he said, referencing the state development tax incentive. “At one point all the different pieces came together.”
Developers have been slow to embrace the new 485x incentive to create projects in Manhattan and neighborhoods along the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront. But LaBarbera believes that high interest rates and rising costs of building materials are more to blame than any change in wage levels, which are higher for workers on larger projects taking advantage of 485x.
“Housing policy should be about building housing and leading to career paths to the construction industry,” he said. “I don’t believe those two issues are exclusive to one another.”
The housing package wasn’t the trades council’s only accomplishment. LaBarbera also signed a memorandum of understanding with New York Mayor Eric Adams and Cirrius, a private equity firm, to invest $400 million in the development of workforce housing that would be affordable to people earning incomes within 80 to 120 percent of those in the surrounding neighborhood.
This year he’s been discussing transit hub and medical center upgrades with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as well as several hospitals; monitoring the Long Island City rezoning in Queens; and screening multiple mayoral candidates before making an endorsement in the June primary.
LaBarbera said he believes construction will pick up again by 2026 thanks to a bevy of infrastructure projects, although it depends whether the Trump administration will continue to pay for them or pull out. “Some of these massive projects come down to funding,” he said. “I’m always cautious until a project actually gets started and we know it’s fully funded.”
