In the crowded race for New York City mayor, real estate companies and executives have been pouring donations into a super PAC backing Andrew Cuomo over the past two months, counting on the former governor to enable higher rents.
Cuomo’s allies formed the super PAC earlier this year to raise and spend unlimited sums from wealthy donors. A large chunk of the $5.5 million the PAC has raised so far has come in contributions of $250,000 from interests like Two Trees real estate company, whose CEO Jed Walentas is the chairperson of lobbying group the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). During his time in office, the real estate industry was one of Cuomo’s main financial backers.
While New York City campaign finance laws cap contributions to candidates participating in the public matching funds program, as Cuomo is, at $2,100, the pro-Cuomo super PAC gives businesses, contractors, and billionaires a way to help fund Cuomo’s run without donation limits. (For donors that do business with the city, the contribution limit to a mayoral candidate is only $400.)
Other real estate industry titans that have donated to the Fix the City super PAC include Scott Rechler, CEO of RXR Realty ($250,000), and billionaire Stephen Ross, CEO of Related Ross and owner of the Miami Dolphins football team ($50,000), according to campaign finance records. The group has already spent $1.9 million on video ads for Cuomo.
Fisher Brothers, a real estate firm that had been under scrutiny in 2014 by the Moreland Commission, also gave to the super PAC. The Moreland Commission was a New York panel investigating corruption—before then-Gov. Cuomo abruptly disbanded it halfway through its planned tenure, as its work began touching on the state executive branch. The prominent Manhattan-based developer Fisher Brothers, which also has an arm overseeing family investments, gave $100,000 to the PAC from its real estate management company on April 11—continuing the firm’s history of backing Cuomo’s political campaigns.
Cuomo has reportedly walked back his support for a tenant protection law he signed as governor in 2019. According to Politico, Cuomo told the heads of REBNY in a private meeting last month that he regretted parts of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA), a law that capped rent increases tied to repairs and strengthened renter rights. Donations from the real estate industry—including those from Fisher Brothers, Two Trees, and more executives like Kamran and Frederick Elghanayan of TF Cornerstone—rolled into the pro-Cuomo super PAC in the weeks following the meeting. In contrast, some progressive rivals in the primary contest are calling on the city’s Rent Guidelines Board to freeze rents, while others are emphasizing tenant protections.
