Election Day Arrives With Real Estate Watching
New Yorkers heading to the polls have plenty on their ballot this Tuesday.
No matter who wins, the outcome of key contests will read as a referendum on the policies pushed at the local level by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump’s track record in the White House.
Both executives appeared keenly aware of that fact as they made their final appeals to voters. Mamdani joined Gov. Kathy Hochul to watch a Buffalo Bills game alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at an Astoria sports bar on Sunday, while Trump carved out time in a midterm endorsement spree to reiterate his support for “MAGA all the way” challenger Bruce Blakeman.
Hochul’s alignment with Mamdani on several key matters has implications for what gets built in New York, and how fast. The governor signed significant environmental review reforms into law, sharing the mayor’s goal to spur development of affordable units to address a housing shortage. She also crafted the controversial pied-à-terre tax, sticking by the surcharge amid an embattled rollout.
Blakeman’s allegiance to Trump is well documented, and the Nassau County Executive is hoping it will pay dividends in the voting booth. Though many deep-pocketed donors in the real estate industry opted to give their dollars to the Hochul campaign, longtime friend of the president James Dolan threw a major fundraiser for Blakeman at Madison Square Garden with Scott Alper, president and chief investment officer at Witkoff.
Lowering state income taxes have been major talking points for the Blakeman campaign, while Hochul maintains that she wouldn’t need to raise taxes to fund the health care and childcare initiatives she is pursuing. If she’s reelected, the incumbent governor will likely meet some pressure from an incoming class of energetic lawmakers in Albany endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and Working Families Party who largely campaigned on taxing the rich.
Early voter turnout in New York City jumped nearly 60 percent higher than the last midterm election in 2022, with more than 690,000 ballots cast across the five boroughs already this cycle. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on election day, and TRD will be watching for results.
What we’re thinking about: As New York awaits election results, some of the state’s political power players and industry leaders are packing their bags to head to San Juan for the annual Somos legislative conference. Will you be there? Let me know at ben.miller@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Meanwhile, on the subway … the MTA reported its biggest Sunday ridership in the system’s history, with 3.1 million people taking trips across the city as marathoners raced above ground.
Elsewhere…
— Spending on rental assistance increased by 40.5 percent in a single year, mainly driven by the CityFHEPS voucher program, reaching $1.9 billion, according to an annual report from Comptroller Mark Levine.
— Mayor Mamdani demanded that ICE halt unauthorized use of city-owned property to stage enforcement operations, threatening to sue the Trump administration if agents continue parking and holding meetings on unstaffed lots in city parks. The mayor’s call comes after he joined lawmakers to call on owners of private parking lots and garages to prevent ICE from using their spaces after agents shot a man in Marble Hill, where they had been staging in a nearby shopping center’s parking lot.
— Enterprise Community Partners released a report on its portfolio showing that insurance costs have jumped 169 percent between 2018 and 2025, with an average cost of $2,030 per unit in New York City, calling for reforms to the state’s so-called Scaffold Law, Crain’s reported.
Closing time
Residential: The most expensive residential sale recorded Monday was $24.9 million for 211 West 84th Street, PHW. The Upper West Side condo at The Henry is 4,800 square feet. Compass’s Alexa Lambert, Alison Black and Shelton Smith had the listing.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial transaction was $42 million for 35 West 57th Street. The Midtown mixed-residential and commercial building has 11,300 square feet of gross building area. The buyer was Bob 57 Development LLC.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market is $28 million for 200 Amsterdam Avenue, Unit PH1. The Upper West Side duplex is 6,300 square feet and lists at $4,400 per square foot. Serhant’s Peter Zaitzeff and Jamie Hannon have the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit filed was for a proposed 92,555-square-foot, 17-story, mixed-use building at 340 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The building plans for retail space on the first floor and 93 dwelling units above. Isaac-Daniel Astrachan of Stephen B. Jacobs Group is the applicant of record.
— Joseph Jungermann
