BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, Brooklyn (WABC) — Mayor Zohran Mamdani is getting pushback from billionaire Ken Griffin and his company, Citadel.
Griffin is threatening to back out of his planned Midtown project that would create 15,000 permanent jobs.
All of this started when Mamdani made a social media video pushing for his and Governor Hochul’s pied-à-terre tax right in front of Griffin’s apartment on Central Park South.
Griffin bought it for $238 million in 2019 even though he is not a New York City resident.
The project, the redevelopment of 350 Park Avenue, would create 6,000 construction jobs and more than 15,000 permanent jobs.
Mayor Mamdani made no apologies Friday when asked whether he regrets the video. His answer was simple.
“That home, when it was purchased, was the most expensive home in the United States of America,” Mamdani said.
Last week, the mayor stood outside 220 Central Park South to promote a new tax on ultra-luxury second homes.
“This pied-à-terre tax is specifically designed for the richest of the rich, those who store their wealth in New York City real estate, but who don’t actually live here,” Mamdani said.
Case in point – The penthouse on the 53rd floor.
“Which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million,” Mamdani said.
Griffin lives in Miami. He is the CEO of a hedge fund that employs 2,500 people in New York.
In a memo to the staff, the chief operating officer wrote, “It is shameful that he used Ken’s name as the example of those who supposedly aren’t carrying their fair share.”
Griffin and the staff “paid $2.3 billion in city and state taxes,” he said. And Griffin, himself, “directed $650 million in charitable gifts” to city institutions.
He also said their planned 1,600-foot tower on Park Avenue will create over 20,000 jobs, mostly permanent. Then adding, “The project – if we move forward – will entail more than $6 billion dollars of spending.”
If Griffin is reconsidering, Mamdani seems unconcerned.
“I am intent, however, on balancing this budget in a manner that asks the wealthiest and the most profitable corporations to pay that a little bit more so that everyone can afford to live in the city, and that means Ken Griffin and that means so many others across the city, and that also means those who would love to join us in this city,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani believes he won a mandate. Destined, perhaps, to clash with the city’s billionaires.
Some in the business community are urging caution.
“It’s a big ecosystem here. And by villainizing the wealthier people that are providing a lot of the jobs for the middle class, ultimately you get a smaller pool of jobs for the middle class, and then who wins in that environment?” CEO of Partnership for New York City Steve Fulop said.
Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed a tax on second homes valued at $5 million or more owned by non-city residents as part of her budget, which is still being negotiated in Albany.
Officials say they are confident the tax would raise about $500 million for the city, noting that part of the conversation is understanding the gap between stated property values and assessed values.
Office To Protect Deed Theft
Also on Friday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a new initiative to curb the predatory practice of deed theft in New York City.
He made the announcement on Friday morning in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
Mamdani says deed theft is a problem that has preyed mostly upon communities of color, and now, he says, the new Office of Deed Theft Prevention will aim to help victims get their homes back.
It will raise awareness and will also connect victims and potential victims with advice and assistance.
It’s focused on addressing rapidly gentrifying communities where developers and speculators are seeking real estate, and often at a terrible price to the people who have lived in these communities and developed these neighbourhoods.
In some cases, signatures are forged on deeds. In other cases, homeowners are tricked into signing documents signing away their homes, or they’re tricked into selling them for a fraction of their actual value.
It all comes days after Council Member Chi Ossé was arrested with several others while protesting the eviction of a woman who says her deed was stolen after she’d been living in her home for decades.
Eyewitness News later learned the property on Jefferson Avenue, where many protested outside, was not a deed theft case but rather a complex family-ownership situation that led real estate speculators to swoop in and buy it.
The mayor says the new office, headed by Peter White, will work with civil and criminal law enforcement and prosecutors to help prevent such predatory practices and ensure that those who victimize homeowners face consequences.
“Deed theft not only disproportionately robs Black and Brown New Yorkers of their homes; it also robs them of the stability that a home provides,” Mamdani said. “The Office of Deed Theft Prevention will coordinate closely with HPD and our city’s Commission on Human Rights to educate homeowners across the five boroughs, particularly those in neighborhoods with the highest rates of predatory, reverse redlining.”
Several of the speakers pointed out on Friday that, in many cases, homeowners don’t realize they’ve been scammed and duped until after the statute of limitations has run out.
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