{"id":196595,"date":"2026-04-14T09:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T09:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196595\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T09:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T09:48:10","slug":"never-mind-mamdani-wall-street-doubles-down-on-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196595\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Mind Mamdani: Wall Street Doubles Down on NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, real estate giant RXR and its partner TF Cornerstone filed for a permit to tear down the Grand Hyatt Hotel famously built by Donald Trump and replace it with a 95-story office building that will cost $6.5 billion to construct.<\/p>\n

The project won City Council approval back in 2021, but is finally advancing now\u00a0 amid signs that \u2014 despite differences with Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> and his tax-the-rich agenda \u2014 Wall Street<\/a> and the financial sector are eager to pay record rents for new office space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand is there,\u201d RXR CEO Scott Rechler told THE CITY. \u201cI had a meeting Thursday with brokers who work with financial service companies and they told me their clients are growing so fast that when their leases are nearing an end they always need more space than they currently occupy.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, the headlines spotlighted a series of Wall Street firms that relocated elsewhere, especially to Miami. Efforts to defeat Mamdani\u2019s push for higher taxes on the wealthy<\/a> and corporations have led to stories predicting companies would flee New York.<\/p>\n

But the numbers tell a different story. Wall Street employment in the city is at a record. Available office space on Park Avenue, a key location for those firms, is almost nonexistent in the most attractive buildings. And developers are planning three new towers on Park, confident there will be financial firms to fill them.<\/p>\n

\"ThePlans are in motion to replace the Grand Central Hyatt over east 42nd Street with a $6.5 billion, 95-story office tower \u2013 a sign of Wall Street\u2019s confidence in New York. Credit: Alex Krales\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is really only one driver of the decisions financial companies make and that is where the people they want to work for them are and where those people want to live and work,\u201d said Mary Ann Tighe, CEO of the real estate firm CBRE\u2019s Tri-State region and a broker who has worked on scores of the most important office deals in recent decades. \u201cAnd New York is still a magnet for those young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is true that Wall Street firms are expanding elsewhere in the United States and the city\u2019s share of securities industry employment is also at a record low. But that is not an exodus.<\/p>\n

Securities firms now employ a record 209,000 workers in the city, according to the final 2025 job number released his month by the state Labor Department. Wall Street profits and bonuses also set records last year, which has led to billions in unexpected income tax collections for the state, which gets 20% of all its tax revenue from the industry, and the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MayoralMayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani heads into the 4-5 Wall Street station after a campaign event, June 10, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

Real estate deals show how committed these firms are to the city.<\/p>\n

The vacancy rate on Park Avenue is only 7% and the most modern buildings are 96% occupied, according to research from the real estate firm JLL.<\/p>\n

\u201cPark Avenue is where people want to be,\u201d said JLL broker Joe Messina. \u201cIt\u2019s a wide thoroughfare with great views and great light. And everybody is there including your peers and your clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

New office towers are underway at 350, 405 and 570 Park Ave. The building at 350 Park is for the giant hedge fund Citadel, which abandoned its historic home in Chicago in 2022, moving its headquarters to Miami, but relocating a substantial number of people to New York.<\/p>\n

\"WorkersWorkers stroll down Wall Street near the Stock Exchange, Dec. 3, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

Park Avenue and the rest of Midtown East have gotten a major boost from JPMorgan Chase\u2019s decision to build what is essentially a campus that includes a new $3 billion, 60-story headquarters for about 10,000 employees. Chase also owns 250 Park Ave. and nearby 383 Madison Ave. where it is spending $1 billion on a renovation. In all it controls 6 million square feet of office space. (Chase is a corporate sponsor of THE CITY.)<\/p>\n

Financial firms that work with Chase, the nation\u2019s largest bank with $4.4 trillion in assets, as well companies that provide legal and other services to Chase, want to be near the campus as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have really reinvigorated the whole area,\u201d Messina said.<\/p>\n

Some of the city\u2019s biggest financial firms are buying their office buildings, a more permanent commitment even than signing a long-term lease, notes Tighe, naming Wells Fargo, and the private equity firms KKR and Blackstone.<\/p>\n

High office prices: \u2018No one blinks\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"A new project will raze the Grand Hyatt Hotel next to Grand Central Station and replace it with a 95-story office building that will cost $6.5 billion to construct. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n

175 Park, which will be the tallest office building in the Western Hemisphere, is in talks with financial service firms and law firms and other professional service firms. It will be very expensive to rent space there.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago when people came to our marketing suite to see what we planned, I would mumble when they asked the cost,\u201d Rechler said.\u201dNow I just tell them and no one blinks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some on Wall Street are doing one thing and saying another as they work to defeat Mamdani\u2019s tax plan.<\/p>\n

Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in his widely read shareholder letter released this week noted that the firm had reduced its number of employees in the city from 30,000 a decade ago to 24,000 today while increasing its workforce in low-tax Texas from 26,000 in 2015 to 32,000 today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The numbers are somewhat misleading since he is including retail employees at working at bank branches. Chase wouldn\u2019t disclose to THE CITY branch employment numbers but it boasts 485 branches in Texas, a state with more than 30 million people compared with a little less than 300 in New York, a city with some 8 million people.<\/p>\n

But Dimon is growing the bank\u2019s footprint elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis trend will likely continue,\u201d he said in the letter. \u201cCompanies need to remain competitive in this very tough, fast-moving world. And higher taxes mean lower returns on capital and less competitiveness by their nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase isn\u2019t alone in expanding elsewhere. Goldman Sachs is constructing a new building in the Dallas area, bringing its headcount there to 5,000, its largest office outside of New York.<\/p>\n

\u2018We expect respect\u2019<\/p>\n

As a result, the city\u2019s share of all securities jobs in the U.S. has fallen from a third in 1990 to just over 17% today, according to the annual report on the industry<\/a> from the state comptroller.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s rhetoric and tax plan have top executives on edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tone and the treatment in New York is a problem,\u201d said Tighe. \u201cWe are a funding source for all the things that are happening in the city. You don\u2019t need to send us a thank you note but we expect respect and a seat at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, right, has talked tough about Mayor Mamdani\u2019s tax-the-rich agenda. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Dur\u00e1n\/THE CITY\t <\/p>\n

The Mamdani Administration insists Wall Street and other businesses should pay more.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the hyperbolic rhetoric coming from some in the business community, the reality is that Wall Street is doing as well as it ever has,\u201d said Cassio Mendoza, a spokesperson for the mayor. \u201cMeanwhile, working New Yorkers are struggling to afford housing, child care, and groceries. The Mamdani administration is focused on growing the economy equitably so that New Yorkers across the five boroughs benefit from our city\u2019s immense economic prosperity.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is one major downside to Wall Street\u2019s love in the city. The Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations achieved an economic goal that had been the Holy Grail of the city for decades: To diversify the economy so that it didn\u2019t plunge into a recession every time Wall Street faltered.<\/p>\n

For the moment, New York is once again an industry town. <\/p>\n

\"Site<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we are back to relying on Wall Street to drive the New York economy,\u201d said Rahul Jain, state deputy comptroller for New York City.<\/p>\n

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