Some firms tell mayor they’ve begun looking beyond New York
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani this week removed all advisers from the advisory board of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, a nonprofit group that uses private donors to give City Hall a pool of money to help finance its agenda. The dismissals of dozens of corporate leaders were seen by many on Wall Street and in the development industry as a sign that the new mayor is not interested in their input.
Mamdani said he is creating a new advisory board that will include appointees with the same backgrounds as previous members, “as well as those who oftentimes have not been at the heart of the conversations of how philanthropy can build upon the work of public goods and public dollars.”
The restructuring jolted the city’s business leaders. “The tone of the mayor has become more combative toward the business community,” said Steven Fulop, president and chief executive of the Partnership for New York City. Fulop said business leaders who had concerns about Mamdani when he took office had hoped to find common ground with him on specific issues.
James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York and one of the dismissed board members, said that “twenty or 30 years ago, real estate in New York City could single-handedly stop something or make something happen.” Under Mamdani, Whelan said, “one has to consider whether he is looking for opportunities to pick fights to stir up the base.”
Some business leaders have told the administration they are looking at locations outside New York. Fulop noted Apollo’s plans to build a second headquarters in Austin and said JPMorgan has more jobs in Texas than in New York. “It’s not good for his narrative and for New York City’s narrative to have jobs fleeing the city because they feel unwelcome because of his policies,” Fulop said.
Jessica Walker, chief executive of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, said the mayor “is seeking $20 million for child care this year, and money doesn’t come from a mailing list. It comes from people who pick up the phone.” Walker said Mamdani has “just let go of the people who pick up the phone.”
The dismissal letters went to figures across the city’s real estate, finance, and business sectors. Richard Born, a hotel real-estate magnate who served on the board for more than five years, said he was surprised by the letter. Born recalled work to provide “internships for underprivileged kids in the hospitality business” and other charitable projects. Ron Moelis, founder of affordable housing developer L+M Development Partners, who was also dismissed, said the reshaped fund fits with the mayor’s messaging. “On one hand, you look at him and say I don’t know what the fund is going to do or how he’s going to get money into it,” Moelis said. “On the other side, this fits his messaging, which is that he doesn’t want to be unduly influenced by wealth.”
The board had served as a channel between the private sector and City Hall, hosting occasional meetings with people from the mayor’s office, or the mayor himself, to discuss priorities, according to board members.
Mamdani, an avowed Democratic Socialist, has pursued a series of policies that put him at odds with the business community. He filmed a video outside billionaire Ken Griffin’s apartment to unveil a new tax on second homes of the wealthy and later wrote on X that the wealthy should check their mailboxes for a notice of the looming tax bill, though some who received a tax notification were longtime New Yorkers not subject to a second-home tax. He appointed Lina Khan to chair the city’s Economic Development Corp. and Tony Shorris, a former McKinsey partner, to lead the agency alongside her. On housing, Mamdani proceeded with a rent freeze covering about one million rent-stabilized units despite the real estate community’s objections.
The administration has drawn some praise from the business community. The appointment of Shorris was well received, and the administration won credit for overhauling prohibitive regulations on small businesses. It is also forming a business advisory council to consult on the city’s economic development strategy.
“Mayor Mamdani recognizes the vital role that the business community plays in our city,” a mayoral spokesman said. “The continued confidence of the business community is critical to growing our economy and building a city that works for working New Yorkers.”
Despite the tensions, some of the business leaders most publicly at odds with Mamdani are remaining in New York. Griffin, who had threatened to halt work on a new Park Avenue tower, is moving forward with the $6 billion construction project. Bill Ackman spent $260 million this summer for new buildings to house a brain research center on Manhattan’s west side. Some real estate executives said top college graduates continue to seek careers in New York’s finance, tech, and property businesses, and that the city remains the global hub for finance, having withstood previous bank threats to relocate.
Tensions between the city’s business community and its elected leaders are not new. Since the 1970s, when the city nearly went bankrupt, New York has relied on the tax receipts of bankers, traders, and real-estate developers to fund public services. Mayors from Rudy Giuliani to Bill de Blasio courted the city’s most successful residents to help keep the city in the black. The Mayor’s Fund was one vehicle of that relationship, alongside public works such as the High Line and Brooklyn Bridge Park.