Does City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams have a decent chance to be elected mayor?
Based on past speakers’ attempts to win higher office, no. But history does suggest there’s a strong likelihood she ends up as a lobbyist for real estate and other industries.
Here’s a look at what became of past Council speakers. Five of the six have real estate ties.
Corey Johnson tried to run for mayor, didn’t get much traction, and switched over to the 2021 race for comptroller, which he lost by 4 points to Brad Lander. Johnson then turned to Plan C: lobbying. He formed Cojo Strategies. Among his clients was Vornado Realty Trust, which he advised on its Penn District plans.
Melissa Mark-Viverito never ran for mayor, but did run for public advocate in 2019 (losing to Jumaane Williams) and Congress in 2020 (finishing sixth with just 4 percent of the vote in a race won by Ritchie Torres). She is now a political consultant and lobbyist.
Christine Quinn was planning to run for mayor in 2009 until agreeing to give Mike Bloomberg (and herself) a third term — an unpopular move with Democratic voters that doomed her 2013 campaign. She placed third in the primary with 15.5 percent of the vote. Today, Quinn runs Win, a homeless services organization formerly known as Women In Need.
Gifford Miller finished fourth in the 2005 Democratic primary for mayor with 10 percent of the vote. Two months after leaving office, he became managing member of Signature Urban Properties, a position he still holds today. He also does real estate work in Portugal.
Peter Vallone Sr. ran for governor in 1998 and mayor in 2001 and never came close to winning. But after leaving office he did well at, guess what, lobbying. He’s still a partner at Constantinople & Vallone Consulting, which has a bevy of real estate clients.
The bottom line: The City Council speaker is powerful, but the position is won by a vote of 51 members (with help from Democratic county organizations and labor unions), not 8.5 million New Yorkers. Becoming speaker, it would appear, says nothing about citywide electability.
What we’re thinking about: Are you worried that socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is running third, behind only Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams, in early polling? Send your thoughts to eengquist@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Mayoral candidate Brad Lander proposed developing 50,000 homes on four of the city’s 12 public golf courses, but would have a feasibility study determine which four. I will explore this intriguing idea further in a column next week.
Elsewhere…
Staten Island retail development Southport Plaza was valued at $51 million when it got $25 million in CMBS financing in 2014, but was recently appraised at $31.6 million, according to Morningstar.
The loan matured in September, four years after going into special servicing. The owner, who is trying to fill vacancies at the property, has requested an extension.
A Loopnet listing shows about 70,000 square feet are available at $25 per square foot. The four-story, mixed-use development is 206,000 square feet.
January 2020 was the last month before Covid started popping up in the New York metro area. It was also the busiest January ever for the three major airports — until last month, when 10.7 million passengers passed through JFK, LaGuardia and Newark. The total beat the previous record by 1.7 percent, and was 3.5 percent higher than January 2024’s mark.
The airports were coming off a record-breaking year and holiday season, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates them. The agency also reported that January shipping at the Port of New York and New Jersey was up 8 percent from a year ago, although that number could fall depending on what happens with tariffs.
Closing time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Friday was $15.3 million for Unit 33 at the Billionaires’ Row supertall 111 West 57th Street. The Midtown condo is 4,500 square feet. Sotheby’s International Realty handles sales at the tower for JDS Development and Property Markets Group.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $56.4 million at 111-16, 111-20 and 111-26 Corona Avenue, a nursing home that totals 55,000 square feet. Nelson Tuchman, who paid $3.3 million for the facility in 2008, sold it to S&A Re Acquisitions LLC.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $7.9 million for Unit 47A at 277 Fifth Avenue. The 2,200-square-foot Nomad condo unit was listed by Douglas Elliman’s Julia Jiang Hawkins and Charles Hawkins.
— Joseph Jungermann