If you think I see President Donald Trump’s case against New York Attorney General Letitia James over her real estate holdings as a long shot because I favor James over Trump, you probably don’t know my history covering James.
We have had a sometimes testy relationship over the years. She once called to chew me out for an article that she didn’t like. After a minute into her diatribe, I interrupted and said, “Tish, that wasn’t my story.”
A few moments of silence ensued. “Oh, sorry,” she said. “Never mind!”
We go back a long way — all the way to her time as a lawyer allied with the Democratic Party organization in Brooklyn. In those days, attorneys who helped the party machine kick its candidates’ opponents off the ballot would be rewarded. They might get lucrative receiverships from judges who had been elected with the county organization’s support or campaign assistance if they ran for office themselves.
James very much wanted to be elected to something, but her affiliation with “County” (as the Brooklyn machine was universally called) stands in contrast to the resumes of Hakeem Jeffries and the late James Davis. Both ran repeatedly against the machine, for Assembly and City Council, respectively, and eventually won.
Reformers who battled County cast their fight as good-versus-evil, a narrative that was reflected in my Brooklyn politics columns in the 1990s and 2000s. There was an element of truth: County leader Clarence Norman was later indicted and convicted of extortion. Like some of his predecessors, he went to prison.
James ultimately won a City Council seat on the Working Families Party line — filling the seat of the assassinated Davis by defeating his brother — and was able to shed her affiliation with the machine. From there, she became public advocate and then, with a boost from then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, AG.
I wrote less often about Trump, but did occasionally call him in the late 2000s and early 2010s for entertaining quotes about various New York politicians. He inevitably delivered.
But my take on the criminal referral against James — which alleges that she fraudulently submitted mortgage documents and owns a possibly miscategorized apartment unit — is that it will fail, and likely make her more popular with the Democratic base. The alleged infractions are just too small, too old and too boring — and Democrats are extremely anti-Trump.
As for landlord attorney Noah Levenson’s notion that James’ brownstone at 296 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn could be retroactively rent-stabilized, the first step would be for a current or former tenant to bring a case.
Tenants could allege that the row house was fraudulently deregulated decades before James bought it in 2001; there is no statute of limitations in such cases. But Levenson says if the building were built before 1974 (which it was) and later had six or more units, the burden of proof would be on James to show it had been legally deregulated. Because that would have been done by a previous owner, such records would be hard to find.
Property records, which in ACRIS date back to 1966 and show a slew of different owners, indicate Philadelphia residents Maritza Brown and Mary Lee Rhodes sold the building to James on Valentine’s Day. A landmark designation was recorded in 1983.
What we’re thinking about: Are your buildings ready for the May 1 deadlines of Local Laws 84, 97 and 133? Send your thoughts to eengquist@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Precertification — the process before a rezoning application begins public review — typically takes two or three years. But the Department of City Planning is trying to shorten it, in part by reducing the number of precertification meetings to one, rather than repeatedly asking for changes. The agency is also pondering changes that “could cut the environmental review time in half or more for some of these projects,” a spokesperson said.
Elsewhere…
One element of Andrew Cuomo’s housing plan that was overlooked, except by one organization, was his call to bring back “local preference” in housing lotteries. Cuomo wants half of affordable units to be once again set aside for residents of the community district.
Craig Gurian of the Anti-Discrimination Center did not take kindly to the idea. Gurian was, more than anyone, responsible for phasing out local preference, a policy that for decades reinforced segregation.
He was lead counsel in the 2015 lawsuit that took down the policy. In the consent decree that resolved the case, local preference was reduced to 20 percent as of April 2024 and will be lowered to 15 percent in 2029.
Gurian wrote, “Cuomo rehashes a series of arguments made during the litigation: that there won’t be support for affordable-housing development without going back to a 50 percent preference; that insiders in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods are uniquely vulnerable to displacement; that the preference prevents displacement; and, implicitly, that virtually everyone wants to stay in his or her neighborhood.”
He continued, “Cuomo’s intended message here is that the ‘good’ kind of segregation is reflected in neighborhoods that are disproportionately Black or Hispanic.” The former governor ignores that this happened because other neighborhoods were kept off-limits to people of color, Gurian added.
But even if traditionally Black neighborhoods were the result of white leaders’ racist policies, Cuomo understands that support for keeping them communities of color is strong among nonwhite voters who live there.
Closing time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Wednesday was $24 million for a 5,596-square-foot condominium at 1 Great Jones Alley in NoHo.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $11.5 million for a 3,383-square-foot retail property at 107 North 6th Street in North Williamsburg. City Urban Realty sold the property to Arcadia Realty Trust, a repeat of yesterday’s top commercial deal.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $18 million for a 3,491-square-foot condominium at 25 Columbus Circle on the Upper West Side. The listing is held by Ileen G. Schoenfeld and Joshua D. Arcus of Brown Harris Stevens.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building application filed was for a 37,832-square-foot, 47-unit residential building at 846 Flatbush Avenue in Flatbush. Gladmore Mwandiambira of Baobab Architects filed the permit on behalf of Raskin Risers.
— Matthew Elo