{"id":79259,"date":"2025-12-23T16:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/79259\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T16:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:49:11","slug":"cre-exhales-as-mamdani-taps-adams-de-blasio-vets-for-key-roles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/79259\/","title":{"rendered":"CRE Exhales As Mamdani Taps Adams, De Blasio Vets For Key Roles"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City’s commercial real estate industry\u00a0has been on edge as it waits\u00a0to see who Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will take with him to City Hall when he is\u00a0sworn into office<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0less than two weeks.<\/p>\n

Now, with\u00a0a handful of senior appointments to his administration, Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, has\u00a0sent an early signal that experience is being valued over ideology.<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Zohran Mamdani photographed during his visit to the White House in November\n <\/p>\n

The incoming mayor\u2019s ascension has generated everything from\u00a0consternation to\u00a0defiance\u00a0to cautious optimism<\/a>\u00a0since June’s primary. Some in CRE remain apprehensive \u2014 but those who spoke to\u00a0Bisnow over the past week were reassured by the fact that\u00a0Mamdani<\/a>‘s\u00a0picks held senior roles under the past two mayors and former President Joe Biden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what we’re seeing is the beginnings of a very interesting administration,\u201d Suri Kasirer, CEO of city lobbying firm Kasirer, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Last month<\/a>, Mamdani named his chief of staff from Albany, Elle Bisgaard-Church, as his chief of staff in his new administration. He also tapped Dean Fuleihan, former first deputy mayor under Bill de Blasio, as first deputy mayor. He kept on Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a Mayor Eric Adams appointee who is popular with the business community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani’s\u00a0picks have inspired confidence for CRE, Fried Frank<\/a>\u00a0partner Anita Laremont said. The 34-year-old mayor-elect \u2014 who has no experience running an organization anywhere near the size of the nation’s largest city \u2014\u00a0tapped people who demonstrate he has taken\u00a0in the business world\u2019s feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have heard that there is some comfort in seeing a person like Dean Fuleihan, who has years of experience in government, being placed in a role as important as this,\u201d Laremont said.<\/p>\n

Fuleihan is a 74-year-old civil servant whose r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes more than 30 years in various posts in the State Assembly plus time as the city’s budget director.<\/p>\n

Some CRE players who\u00a0previously poured dollars into<\/a>\u00a0former Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/a>\u2019s campaign in the hopes of beating Mamdani remain apprehensive. Mamdani’s pledge to freeze rents and\u00a0fund affordability programs\u00a0such as free buses and childcare with increased taxes on the wealthy\u00a0are still policies that developers like\u00a0Extell Development<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0Gary Barnett<\/a>\u00a0oppose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe engines of creating taxes and revenue for the city are real estate,\u201d Barnett told Israeli investors in response to a question on\u00a0a Nov. 30 conference call, a recording of which was obtained by\u00a0Bisnow via the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. \u201cTax them, the rich \u2014\u00a0short term, that might feel good and generate monies. Of course, five minutes later, there\u2019s no more building going on in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnett conceded, however, that Mamdani\u2019s appointments at that time\u00a0were \u201cpretty reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s appointing experienced people,\u201d\u00a0Barnett said. \u201cMost of them are not far-out, lefty, stars in the eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani announced four more appointments last week. Most\u00a0relevant to the industry was\u00a0Mamdani naming<\/a> Leila Bozorg, Adams\u2019 executive director of housing, whose work has included negotiating City of Yes<\/a> with the city council, as his deputy mayor for housing and planning.<\/p>\n

Her ascension\u00a0shows that Mamdani understands the proficiency needed to build on Adams\u2019 self-proclaimed legacy as the \u201cmost pro-housing mayor in history” and deliver on his own housing goals, Kasirer said.<\/p>\n

Bozorg is an \u201coutstanding choice for a critical role,\u201d she added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve seen firsthand her ability to advance ambitious housing initiatives that will create tens of thousands of new homes,\u201d Kasirer said. \u201cShe understands both the urgency of New York’s housing crisis and the complex mechanics of actually building at scale.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n New York City Hall\n <\/p>\n

Sherif Soliman, who worked in senior roles involving policy as well as at the Department of Finance and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, will serve as Mamdani\u2019s director of the Office of Budget and Management.\u00a0He also\u00a0served as executive director of the New York City Advisory Commission on Property Tax Reform.<\/p>\n

His\u00a0property tax familiarity shows that Mamdani means business when it comes to his tax reform campaign promise, which was popular among<\/a>\u00a0both voters and CRE players.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Soliman\u2019s time as de Blasio\u2019s Department of Finance commissioner makes him well-placed to handle the mammoth undertaking of coming up with Mamdani\u2019s preliminary budget, due by Jan. 16<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re not familiar with the city budget, or you haven’t been involved in the city budget before, it’s a massive undertaking,\u201d Kasirer said. \u201cYou have to rely on those people that have that kind of familiarity because he also has such an aggressive and clear and focused and thoughtful agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that the mix of people with city and state experience who \u201cunderstand New York very, very deeply,\u201d alongside younger people with fresh ideas,\u00a0is indicative of the mayor-elect\u2019s understanding of how prepared he needs to be to make asks to Albany for help\u00a0meeting his goals.<\/p>\n

The other two appointments announced last week were Julie Su<\/a> as the city\u2019s first deputy mayor for economic justice and Jahmila Edwards as head of<\/a>\u00a0the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Su and Edwards are, respectively, a former federal Department of Labor acting secretary and a longtime union leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But even with Mamdani\u2019s newly announced personnel, the appointment bringing CRE the highest level of comfort remains Tisch\u2019s reappointment as police commissioner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u00a0faced pressure to keep Tisch<\/a>\u00a0in her current role. Tisch has been credited<\/a>\u00a0with record drops in crime rates<\/a>, with many in NYC CRE\u00a0believing that her continued tenure is fundamental to making the city feel safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police commissioner was a big deal for those of us that know that safety and security of New Yorkers is an existential issue to our industry, and our business, and the life of our city,\u201d\u00a0MAG Partners<\/a> CEO MaryAne Gilmartin said. \u201cWe were very, very pleased with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While real estate’s worst fears of a city run by novices have been avoided, the industry is still skeptical of\u00a0Mamdani’s ability to deliver more housing and job growth amid a broadly socialist agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does need to make the city work. That is what he is going to be judged on,\u201d Laremont said. \u201cUnderstanding that, I think, is a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City’s commercial real estate industry\u00a0has been on edge as it waits\u00a0to see who Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9894,5891,81,36686,39412,1512,39413,441,432,9,24,63,443,122,124,123,82],"class_list":["post-79259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-bill-de-blasio","tag-city-of-yes","tag-eric-adams","tag-extell-development","tag-fried-frank","tag-gary-barnett","tag-kasirer-consulting","tag-mag-partners","tag-maryanne-gilmartin","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-housing","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79259","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=79259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}