Ahead of the New York City mayoral election, many business leaders called Zohran Mamdani an impending disaster. Titans of corporations and Wall Street toppled $40 million to political action committees to try to stop a young democratic socialist from winning by saying his proposals on crime and taxes would make New York less secure and companies unable to compete.
However, since Mr Mamdani's resounding victory on November 4, the business community has taken a much more conciliatory tone. Although some are still I predict a difficult road ahead or even threatening escape the cityothers were spreading olive branches and say they want to try to work with the new mayor. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called Mr Mamdani offer your help. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who tried unsuccessfully hire Candidates running against Mr Mamdani congratulated him on social media.
“Some were surprised by my conciliatory post,” tweeted Mr. Ackman, who condemned Mr Mamdani's criticism of Israel. “Mamdani won the decisive election. He will be our mayor for the next four years.”
Why did we write this
New York's financial community has long played a key role in the city's governance. With mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist whose proposals are anathema to many business leaders, cooperation is likely to require concessions on both sides.
Explanatory work is carried out in both directions. Since winning the Democratic primary in June, Mr. Mamdani has been secretly meeting with city stakeholders to drum up support for his affordability agenda and listen to their concerns. His charm offensive even included a recent high-profile trip to the White House, during which he and President Donald Trump held a friendly news conference after a private meeting in which they reportedly discussed New York real estate and utilities.
Mr Mamdani's early administrative appointments, including Dean Fuleikhan as first deputy mayor, the position he held under the leadership of former Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who will remain in your current role – reassured skeptics that he intends to fill City Hall with experienced hands. He has demanded resignation of 179 Adams administration employees.
However, many are on standby. By early next year, many of New York's influential and well-connected business leaders could find themselves in the unusual position of being outside the new mayor's inner circle.
“The real estate industry will be very predictable. They will work with him on something, and if they don't like it, they will fight it. They will be involved. The question is, what is the broader business community going to do?” says Jordan Barowitz, director of Barowitz Advisory and former aide to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“Do they strive to have a say in the detailed operations? Or do they just go back to choosing when they want to get involved?”
The coming fight over taxes
Mr. Mamdani's biggest challenge may be overcoming Wall Street resistance to his stated tax and spending priorities.
He advocated raising New York's corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.5% and increasing taxes by two percentage points on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million. These tax hikes, almost unanimously condemned in New York's banking and corporate sectors, are intended to pay for costly campaign promises such as a universal child care program, free bus rides and a community grocery store pilot project.
New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers who set tax rates are reportedly I am considering Mr. Mamdani's proposals. Some lobbyists warn that the burden of funding the new mayor's ambitious agenda will crush the city's economy, making businesses less competitive and ultimately hurting all New Yorkers.
“We believe that raising taxes only furthers the affordability crisis,” said Katherine Wild, executive director of the Partnership of New York City, which represents the city’s corporate leaders. “Our goal is to cut costs so we don’t have to continually increase government spending.”
So far, this kind of resistance from corporate powerbrokers has not deterred Mr Mamdani, who has also vowed to identify and weed out government inefficiency by hiring more auditors, streamlining contracts, and imposing more fines.
But in this fast-changing, sometimes cut-throat city, it is another priority for Mr Mamdani, one that could draw even more resistance from leaders.
Lina Khan, who headed the Federal Trade Commission under former President Joe Biden, joined Mr. Mamdani's transition team with specific instructions to study ways to use local laws combat predatory business practices. Some measures will require cooperation with the City Council or State Legislature. But Ms Khan says the mayor has autonomous powers sue “corporate lawbreakers” for things like price gouging through city agencies such as the Department of Consumer and Employee Protection.
Some Conservatives are not waiting for Mr Mamdani's inauguration to hold the elected mayor to account.
Recently, supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, a longtime Trump supporter, convened a round table business leaders and politicians to the organization, which was initially billed as a “watchdog group” to monitor the new Mamdani administration on public safety and other issues. Catsimatidis later stated that he actually wanted to work with the new mayor and try to find common ground.
“The one thing we all have in common is that we all love New York … and we want New York to thrive as it always has,” Mr. Catsimatidis said at a news conference.
“The real estate community is stuck”
City property owners may be more familiar with Mr. Mamdani than Wall Street executives, but that doesn't mean they'll get along better with him.
One of Mr. Mamdani's most prominent campaign promises was to freeze rent increases for the city's 1 million regulated apartments by appointing sympathetic city council members to guide rent guidelines. Over the past four years, the council has approved a cumulative cap on rent increases for these homes of 12.6% since Mayor Eric Adams took office, or about 3% per year on one-year leases.
Mr Mamdani's decision will halt that trend, worrying landlords who say they need rental income to maintain their properties as insurance, property taxes and utility costs continue to rise.
“There is a myth that rent-stabilized housing is financially healthy. The reality is that one-third of buildings are financially distressed and effectively bankrupt, and another third will become bankrupt after four years of rent freezes,” said Kenny Burgos, head of the New York Apartment Association.
The mayor-elect's plans to build new housing were better received. Mr Mamdani has proposed spending $100 billion in public funds to build 200,000 subsidized homes in the city's five boroughs over the next decade, essentially tripling the annual output of affordable housing.
If Mr. Mamdani can actually achieve that goal, he will become “the most pro-housing mayor New York has ever had,” says David Schwartz, co-founder of Slate Property Group. “It’s nice that we have a mayor who wants to build a ton of affordable housing.”
Derek French/SOPA Images/Reuters
Meanwhile Mr Mamdani continuation of the meeting with prominent commercial property owners to voice their opinions and listen to their point of view.
He previously acknowledged the role the private sector plays in addressing the city's housing shortage and said he would adopt a Bloomberg-like management style at City Hall. But skepticism remains about his approach to development and tax reform.
“The real estate community is stuck. They're giving in because they have to,” says Ms. Wild of the Partnership of New York. “The mayor has far more power in real estate than in any other industry.”
Allies in the Tech Industry
Some believe Mr Mamdani's strongest alliances in the private sector may be with the city's growing technology industry.
Among them were employees of Google, Meta and Amazon. largest donor groups Mr Mamdani's mayoral campaign this year, signaling widespread support for his agenda among the city's young professional class.
Julie Samuels, president and CEO of Tech:NYC, which represents the city's tech industry, believes their support for the new mayor is based on cultural affinity.
“A lot of Zohran's campaigns felt revolutionary and had a lot to do with technology,” she says. “Part of it is age. There will be all these digital natives at City Hall, and that's a good thing.”
At a roundtable discussion organized by Tech:NYC, participants pressed Mr. Mamdani's team to integrate technology, including artificial intelligence programs, to improve the delivery of city services and speed up permit processing. Elected Mayor Mamdani didn't AI is the focus of his campaign, even as he has warned it could lead to job losses.
“The tech sector is more like a genie that won't go back in the bottle, and we would all be better off finding policy answers,” especially when it comes to artificial intelligence, Ms. Samuels says. “The answer is to not bury your head in the sand and say technology won’t come here.”
However, highly regulated startups may end up in the mayor's crosshairs anyway. The new Mamdani administration will face pressure from Airbnb to ease restrictions banning single-family homeowners from listing their properties on the platform for less than 30 days, which the city began enforcement two years ago.
Home-sharing company Super PAC spent 1 million dollars about digital ads criticizing Mr Mamdani and two other mayoral candidates who did not support changes to the law.
And DorDash dropped 1 million dollars to the super PAC opposing Mr. Mamdani's calls to raise the minimum wage to $30, classify delivery workers as employees and tighten licensing requirements for delivery apps.
Chris Coffey, chief executive of Tusk Strategies, who has orchestrated media campaigns for both Uber and Bird, expects DoorDash to try to negotiate peace to get what it wants at City Hall – at least initially.
“I don't see them meaningfully fighting the mayor now that he's been elected,” he says. “They'll try to work with him and see what happens.”
