The Lawyer Taking the Mamdani Agenda to Court
Who is Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s nemesis? These days, it may very well be Randy Mastro.
The courts have emerged as the new venue to fight the Mamdani agenda, and Mastro, an attorney at the law firm Dechert, is leading the charge. He’s the lead attorney on two recent cases filed in Staten Island: one challenging the recent rent freeze, and another targeting the roll-out of Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax.
Lawyers are typically working behind the scenes, but Mastro is not a typical attorney. He previously served as first deputy mayor under Eric Adams, and was chief of staff and a deputy mayor for Rudy Giuliani in the 1990s. Mastro made a big show of resigning from his position after Mamdani’s election, saying he would “never work for a socialist.”
Mamdani even called out Mastro by name at a press conference Monday.
“There are few things more certain in New York City than death, taxes and Randy Mastro filing a lawsuit against this administration,” he said.
An affirmation by Mastro in the pied-à-terre suit underscores his personal involvement. He too got a letter in the mail from the Department of Finance, saying he might be asked to pay the tax “surcharge.” He says the unit in question, on East 83rd Street, is his primary residence.
Mastro has treated the case with typical pugnacity. On Tuesday, Mastro filed a letter to the court taking issue with the city’s argument that it could stay a temporary restraining order on the rollout.
“[T]he City is apparently planning to disregard this Court’s TRO order and go into contempt,” Mastro wrote. “[I]t is unseemly for the City Respondents to be engaging in such sharp practices. There will be consequences for it.”
To be clear, the pied-à-terre tax lawsuit is focused somewhat narrowly on the rollout of the surcharge, not the tax itself. Unwinding that piece of the Mamdani agenda will take more than this suit. (President Donald Trump, whose Trump Tower penthouse would likely be subject to the tax, said he’s exploring ways for the federal government to stop the surcharge.)
Fully unwinding the tax might be a tougher public relations fight as well. Although the rollout drew criticism from New York residents, especially those who say the city is trying to tax their primary residences, the idea of a pied-à-terre tax itself is less controversial. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Simon Hedley, even told the site Hell Gate that he supports the tax “100 percent.”
Overall, it’s not immediately clear if Mastro is the mastermind behind these suits or merely the counsel hired. But as the attorney he has been instrumental in making the courts, specifically Staten Island’s Supreme Court, a new battleground for Mamdani, making the young socialist fight for his agenda.
In his Monday presser, Mamdani hinted at the possibility of more Mastro-led suits in the future.
“We look forward to vigorously defending our city’s position in court, as we have done so with the previous lawsuits that he has filed,” he said, “and I’m sure with the lawsuits he will continue to file in the months and years to come.”
What we’re thinking about: The Mamdani administration announced it financed the creation or preservation of more than 12,000 affordable housing units in the past six months. Will the reforms the mayor has been pushing pick up the pace? Send thoughts to lilah.burke@therealdeal.com and ben.miller@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Would you believe that the country’s biggest mall in one of the country’s coldest states has no heating system? It’s true. Despite covering 5.6 million square feet, the Mall of America doesn’t have a central heating system and still maintains temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees — even in frigid Minnesota winters. How? Eight acres of skylights and the body heat of around 40 million annual visitors. When the mall was first built in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the builders reserved space for heaters, but they quickly realized they wouldn’t need any. There are select heaters in some department stores and near some entrances, but there is no central heating for the mall as a whole.
— Spencer Davis
Elsewhere…
— Mayor Zohran Mamdani is backing a bill that will force Amazon and other delivery companies to directly employ workers rather than use subcontractors, The Wall Street Journal reports. The bill, backed by City Council member Tiffany Cabán, would require last-mile warehouse operators to obtain licenses from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which will mandate strict employment requirements.
— The New York Police Department seized over 3,000 guns off New York City streets since January, including almost 200 ghost guns, amNY reports. The data comes as the city continues its hot streak of record-low shootings this year, with shooting incidents down over 6 percent compared to this time last year.
— Is the nearly decade-long Elizabeth Street Garden saga nearing a conclusion? According to Gothamist, possibly. The city and the spurned developers that were supposed to build an affordable housing complex on the Lower Manhattan site — which was ultimately scuttled after local protests and lawsuits — have reached some sort of a settlement. It’s unclear what the agreement is, but more details are likely to come at a Thursday hearing.
— Spencer Davis
Closing time
Residential: The most expensive residential sale recorded Tuesday was $11.5 million for a 3,990-square-foot home at 40 Garden Place in Brooklyn Heights. Callie Katt with The Hudson Advisory Team had the listing.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial transaction was $310 million for the 37-story, 390,000-square-foot property at 10 East 53rd Street in Midtown. SL Green sold the office property to Meadow Partners.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $22 million for a 4,595-square-foot condominium at 430 East 58th Street in Sutton Place. Carl Gambino at Compass has the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit filed was for a proposed 76,934-square-foot, 80-unit, mixed-use building at 191 Concord Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Amr Ouda with Jay Architect & Engineering filed the permit on behalf of developer Samuel Klein.
— Matthew Elo
