Over the course of his early tenure as mayor, Zohran Mamdani has filled out City Hall\u2019s upper ranks with people he trusts to implement his democratic socialist-inflected agenda in New York City, the nation\u2019s financial capital.<\/p>\n
But one arm of city government continues to bedevil him: the Economic Development Corporation, whose mission is to leverage city real estate and tax incentives to attract private capital and drive job growth across the five boroughs.<\/p>\n
Five months into the mayor\u2019s tenure, the nonprofit corporation remains officially rudderless, with City Hall officials considering at least 10 candidates for E.D.C. president, including a consumer protection advocate and pro-business types. But the mayor\u2019s team has been unable to coalesce around any of them, illustrating an internal debate over how to direct the organization.<\/p>\n
The uncertainty surrounding the E.D.C.\u2019s leadership and direction has fed the notion, widespread among business leaders and moderate Democratic politicians, that Mr. Mamdani is insufficiently attuned to the health of New York City\u2019s economy, and that his inattention potentially comes at his, and the city\u2019s, peril.<\/p>\n
It also raises larger and more fundamental questions: What kind of economic policy does the mayor want to embrace? And is Mr. Mamdani quietly withdrawing from City Hall\u2019s traditional role of courting business and using the E.D.C.\u2019s power to support a thriving economic climate in New York?<\/p>\n
\u201cI have not heard one statement yet about how it is that the city sees industry growth, how the city wants to maximize talent, and, certainly, the absence of an E.D.C. head this far into the administration is a concern,\u201d said Gregory Morris, the chief executive of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition.<\/p>\n
When the mayor talks about the economy, he largely talks about his ambitious universal day care and housing programs, and how they will redound to the city\u2019s economic benefit \u2014 a prediction that some analyses<\/a> agree with.<\/p>\n But some business and work force development leaders argue that Mr. Mamdani cannot fulfill his vision for a more expansive government without a robust, tax-generating economy. They note that affordability requires not just cheaper goods, but also better-paying jobs. And they worry that he has yet to articulate what business growth in the Mamdani era will be, at a time when the challenges facing New York\u2019s economy are legion.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s job numbers are lackluster<\/a>, even as office leasing has strengthened. Some financial sector jobs have migrated<\/a> to Texas. The war in Iran continues to cast a haze over the country\u2019s economic prospects. City officials are eyeing the coming disruptions from artificial intelligence with alarm<\/a>. International tourism has declined<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have the worst job market we\u2019ve had in decades outside of a recession and we are facing the most intense competition we ever have with other parts of the country and to some extent other global capitals,\u201d said Mark Levine, the city\u2019s comptroller. \u201cAnd we have the possibility of an economic slowdown ahead. And that\u2019s before you deal with the A.I. disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSome of this is out of our hands, because these are national and global economic challenges,\u201d Mr. Levine continued. \u201cBut we do have tools at our disposal and most of those tools are wielded by E.D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike typical city agencies, the Economic Development Corporation \u2014 considered a pioneering example of a municipally run nonprofit designed to drive economic growth \u2014 exists outside of the city\u2019s typical procurement rules. Its staff is not unionized, and it is perceived as a nimble arm of an otherwise sprawling, sclerotic government.<\/p>\n And so when former Mayor Bill de Blasio wanted to create a citywide ferry system, he turned to the E.D.C. When the mayor before him, Michael R. Bloomberg, wanted to bring a world-class research university to Roosevelt Island, he deployed<\/a> the E.D.C.<\/p>\n In 2024, the corporation leveraged city assets to support as many as 6,475 companies, attracting $1.5 billion of private investment, it boasted<\/a> in a report. Its recent work has included granting tax exemptions to small-bore projects, like a family-owned building supply company in Hunts Point, and overseeing large-scale master plans, like the multibillion dollar Brooklyn Marine Terminal<\/a>. There, developers intend to build 6,000 units of housing and modernize port operations \u2014 a plan Mr. Mamdani\u2019s E.D.C. has moved ahead with, despite the opposition of the local democratic socialist legislators.<\/p>\n One candidate who was interviewed for the position, and had worked at the E.D.C., was dismayed to find that the interview questions seemed to suggest a lack of understanding about the function of the organization. The questions focused largely on how it could regulate large corporations.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t you just stop for a second and focus on keeping the good things going?\u201d said Matthew Hiltzik, a publicist who was appointed by Mr. de Blasio to the board of the E.D.C. and has felt confused by the organization\u2019s lack of direction and by the emphasis placed on city-run grocery stores.<\/p>\n In a sign that complaints about the lack of an economic agenda are breaking through, Joe Calvello, a spokesman for the mayor, said on Friday that Mr. Mamdani is currently putting together a business advisory council to provide feedback on the city\u2019s economic development plans, a move that may run afoul of Mr. Mamdani\u2019s base.<\/p>\n Central to many business leaders\u2019 concern is how Mr. Mamdani\u2019s cabinet, or at least the more democratic socialist-aligned elements of it, seems eager to reshape the way the E.D.C. does business and de-emphasizes economic development. (Mr. Mamdani is the first mayor of the 21st century to have no deputy mayor with \u201ceconomic development\u201d in their title.)<\/p>\n On Jan. 2, Julie Su, then the city\u2019s incoming deputy mayor for economic justice, circulated<\/a> a memo calling for every E.D.C. program to be re-evaluated to ensure the corporation was advancing \u201cnot just economic growth or economic strength, but justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Su\u2019s interests seem to align with those of Lina Khan, the Biden-era Federal Trade Commission leader who helped lead Mr. Mamdani\u2019s transition team and has been personally involved<\/a> in the quest for a new E.D.C. leader.<\/p>\n Together they urged the mayor to consider hiring Rohit Chopra, a former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Ms. Khan\u2019s former colleague and co-author<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Chopra was also pushed by leaders of the city chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, according to a person familiar with the selection process. He has since been scooped up<\/a> by Gov. Gavin Newsom of California to manage a consumer regulatory agency.<\/p>\n It is not unheard-of for a major city leadership role to remain unfilled this long into a mayor\u2019s first year. (Mr. Mamdani\u2019s predecessor, Eric Adams, did not name a permanent fire commissioner until 10 months after taking office.) Nor is the E.D.C. incapable of operating without a permanent president.<\/p>\n In a recent interview, Gustavo Gordillo, the a chair of the D.S.A chapter in New York City, argued that the E.D.C. should focus on building \u201csocial housing,\u201d adding, \u201cwe need an E.D.C. that isn\u2019t afraid to fight business leaders to get the best results for the working class of New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe E.D.C. has become a concierge service for a small number of wealthy New Yorkers \u2014 a public agency treated like private property,\u201d he said. \u201cThe E.D.C. needs to be completely reimagined as a new agency that, instead of doling out tax breaks, sets the terms of a pro-worker local economy.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Khan declined to comment for this article.<\/p>\n Other candidates have had more conventional backgrounds. City Hall has considered David Ehrenberg, a real estate adviser who once worked at the E.D.C. and ran the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the former shipping depot turned city-subsidized haven for industrial start-ups; the Navy Yard\u2019s current president, Lindsay Greene; and James Katz, an E.D.C. veteran and economic development adviser to Gov. Kathy Hochul.<\/p>\n It has also considered Blondel Pinnock, the chief executive of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Redevelopment Corporation; Marisa Lago, a city, state and federal government veteran who served in senior positions in economic development, planning and trade; Andrea Batista Schlesinger, a public banking expert and partner at HR&A Advisors, a consulting firm; the corporation\u2019s interim president, Jeanny Pak; Cecilia Kushner, another E.D.C. veteran and the chief of staff at Robin Hood; and Shaifali Puri, a former E.D.C. board member and the former executive director for global innovation at the Nike Foundation.<\/p>\n Mr. Mamdani and his team\u2019s indecisiveness is an apparent reflection of dissension within City Hall between those who consider the E.D.C. an essential mechanism for nurturing business in New York City, and those, like Ms. Su, who are eager to to see it also embrace a more regulatory and social justice role.<\/p>\n \u201cN.Y.C.E.D.C. is focused now \u2014 as it has been and will continue to be \u2014 on delivering generational projects that span decades and administrations, expanding opportunities for working New Yorkers,\u201d said Jeff Holmes, an E.D.C. spokesman. Those include a new life sciences campus in Manhattan, major housing developments in Queens and Brooklyn, and Mr. Mamdani\u2019s effort to build a low-cost, city-owned grocery store in each of the five boroughs.<\/p>\n Leila Bozorg, the deputy mayor for housing, is said to have a voice in the leadership decision-making, as does Ms. Su; Dean Fuleihan, the first deputy mayor and veteran Albany operative; and Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mr. Mamdani\u2019s far left chief of staff.<\/p>\n It has proved difficult to find a candidate with the political worldview that can somehow satisfy all of those officials.<\/p>\n Mr. Chopra, for one, sparked some concern that he was potentially too left-leaning, according to an administration official.<\/p>\n \u201cEconomic justice demands that we focus on economic growth and on who benefits from that growth,\u201d said Ms. Su in a statement. \u201cE.D.C. is critical to that focus and has been since day one of this administration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue using every tool available to build a city that remains the center of economic growth in America, where public investment delivers real results, businesses continue to flourish and working people can afford to live with dignity,\u201d Ms. Su continued.<\/p>\n The E.D.C. was born during the recession of the early 90s, when David Dinkins was mayor, and the city\u2019s economic development activities were scattered among disparate entities.<\/p>\n To be sure, many of the E.D.C.\u2019s plans do not pan out, at least initially. A bid to build a 630-foot Ferris wheel on Staten Island\u2019s North Shore ultimately failed<\/a>. A joint bid<\/a> with the state\u2019s economic development arm to bring Amazon\u2019s second headquarters to Queens also failed, though the proposal (which included a helipad for Jeff Bezos<\/a>) did galvanize the borough\u2019s political left and arguably helped create the conditions for Mr. Mamdani\u2019s rise.<\/p>\n Matthew Haag contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the course of his early tenure as mayor, Zohran Mamdani has filled out City Hall\u2019s upper ranks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10902,92399,1445,1442,9,24,55,54,56,1671,1446],"class_list":["post-249159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-economic-conditions-and-trends","tag-economic-development-corp","tag-mamdani","tag-mayors","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-politics-and-government","tag-zohran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}