In Eric Adams\u2019s waning days as mayor last year, he agreed to a deal with Related Companies, one of the biggest and most powerful developers in New York City, to have taxpayers finance a $2 billion platform over a Manhattan rail yard to support mostly luxury housing.<\/p>\n
But the agreement was only as good as the mayor\u2019s commitment to it, and his successor, Zohran Mamdani, had been noncommittal as a candidate<\/a>. Now, as mayor, Mr. Mamdani is signaling that he does not consider the project a particular priority.<\/p>\n A spokesman for the mayor said that the administration was \u201cnot actively engaged in negotiations to move this project forward at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesman, Matt Rauschenbach, said on Wednesday evening that the mayor\u2019s immediate goals were \u201cbuilding new affordable housing across the five boroughs, protecting tenants, creating good-paying jobs and building a city that every New Yorker can afford.\u201d<\/p>\n The administration\u2019s tepid view of the $2 billion platform comes as some of the mayor\u2019s closest allies plan to start a campaign to convince Mr. Mamdani to kill the deal.<\/p>\n As part of that campaign, New York Communities for Change, a coalition of 20,000 largely Black and immigrant members who backed Mr. Mamdani when he began his long-shot mayoral campaign, plans on Thursday to endorse City Council candidate Lindsey Boylan. According to Olivia Leirer, the executive director of New York Communities for Change, Ms. Boylan came out against the project in a candidate interview.<\/p>\n Ms. Boylan, who did not respond to a request for comment, also recently won the mayor\u2019s endorsement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The coalition\u2019s endorsement of Ms. Boylan is part of a larger, multiweek campaign that is expected to involve rallies, news conferences and reports and op-eds critiquing the project.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope and believe that Mayor Mamdani will not want to invest in these kinds of projects, but we also know that we cannot take it as a given,\u201d Ms. Leirer said. \u201cWe think that it\u2019s important to elevate this issue and get a commitment from him to not do this.\u201d<\/p>\n The Related deal came together at the tail end of the Adams administration, as the developer searched for a way to fund the costs of a $2 billion platform to complete the second phase<\/a> of Hudson Yards, a forest of skyscrapers on Manhattan\u2019s Far West Side that now boasts some of the country\u2019s highest office and apartment rents. <\/p>\n Related has spent years<\/a> trying to solve the platform funding puzzle. Last year, it argued that the only way to build the platform and complete the project would be to use the proceeds from a proposed casino. When neighborhood opposition killed<\/a> the casino idea, the company turned to the city for help.<\/p>\n Related ultimately succeeded in convincing the Adams administration and the City Council that the expensive platform, and the housing and office buildings that would sprout from it, were only feasible with government support.<\/p>\n The agreement, which came together so quickly that the comptroller\u2019s office complained it was \u201crushed,\u201d called for a city entity to issue debt for the new development and for Related to pay discounted taxes that would go toward paying down that debt. The expectation was that the development\u2019s property values (and property tax proceeds) would increase over time, and the project would ultimately pay for itself.<\/p>\n Related also agreed to increase the number of below-market-rate apartments it would build from 420 to at least 625, or about 16 percent of the 4,000 total apartments.<\/p>\n But the political environment has changed under Mr. Mamdani, whose ascension was opposed by the company\u2019s leadership<\/a>, and a new City Council speaker, who via a spokesman on Wednesday said the fate of the project rested entirely with the mayor.<\/p>\n The city routinely subsidizes developments that have affordable housing units, though real estate experts debate whether it makes sense to put so much public money behind Hudson Yards, when more apartments could theoretically be produced elsewhere on a cheaper per-unit basis.<\/p>\n The platform<\/a> would cover rail tracks from West 30th to West 33rd Streets between 11th and 12th Avenues, with unobstructed views of the Hudson River.<\/p>\n Related\u2019s critics noted that the deal came on top of billions<\/a> of dollars in existing subsidies for the first half of the Hudson Yards project. They pointed out that Related financed the platform over the eastern half of the rail yards on its own<\/a>, at a time when the development was more speculative. They balked at the city\u2019s willingness to also cover Related\u2019s rent to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which last year was $36 million and is slated to rise. They also took issue with the notion that the city would assist in the long-promised construction of a school and park on the site.<\/p>\n Alicia Glen, the former deputy mayor for economic development under Mayor Bill de Blasio, argued that the deal\u2019s finances needed to be re-evaluated.<\/p>\n \u201cMore low-cost capital should either generate significantly more affordable housing than was originally contemplated or actual revenue to the city if the project is profitable,\u201d Ms. Glen said. \u201cUnless it\u2019s also prepared to share in the upside, the private sector should not expect the public to step in whenever market conditions change.\u201d<\/p>\n The deal, however, is not fully baked. The structure of the agreement requires several approvals from the mayor and from the entities he controls.<\/p>\n Natalie Ravitz, a spokeswoman for Related Companies, declined to comment. But she has argued that the transformation of the underdeveloped site into thousands of homes via a public-private partnership \u201cis not only viable, but proven to work.\u201d She has also said that the subsidies were necessary because city lawmakers requested more housing on the site.<\/p>\n