Lucrative leases OK’d by the city’s top real estate official reek of “corruption,” raged a top City Council lawmaker Tuesday – as Mayor Eric Adams said the deals in question will be reviewed.
Jesse Hamilton — a former state senator and longtime friend of Adams — was a no-show at a hearing called by Councilman Lincoln Restler over his management of the city’s $1.5 billion leasing portfolio, which is also under scrutiny by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Instead, freshly-minted Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Louis Molina faced an intense grilling by Restler, who questioned why Hamilton yanked a lease for the city’s Department of Aging and instead handed it to another building at 14 Wall St., which is owned by a billionaire donor to the mayor.
“Sadly, it appears as though DCAS is once again facing a significant corruption scandal,” Restler charged.
Molina told Restler that there were no plans to review the deal – an assertion quickly undercut by Adams, who said during a near-simultaneous news conference at City Hall that Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer will look into the deals.
“She’s going to do an overall review and come out with some of those changes that we need to do,” the mayor said.
The contentious Council hearing followed a report by Politico last week that Hamilton, the DCAS’ deputy commissioner for real estate, overruled a formal bidding process that had awarded a contract for relocating the Department of Aging to 250 Broadway, across from City Hall.
Hamilton instead directed the contract to 14 Wall St., a building owned by real estate investor and Adams donor Alexander Rovt, according to the report.
The lease switcheroo disclosure added to questions swirling around Hamilton, who recently had his phone seized by agents for the Manhattan DA after returning from a trip to Japan with the mayor’s advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin.
Hamilton and Lewis-Martin were joined on the trip by a broker for real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield who handles its dealings with DCAS.
Restler, as he opened the hearing, raised a litany of questions about Hamilton’s role and actions
“Why did the mayor put a completely unqualified political ally in the job with the power to direct the city’s $1.5 billion leasing portfolio?” he said. “Why did Mr. Hamilton undermine the contracting process appearing to punish a qualified bidder and reward a mayoral campaign donor? And why did Mr. Hamilton go on vacation to Japan with Ingrid Lewis-Martin and a real estate executive who benefits from DCAS real estate deals?”
Molina, when asked why Hamilton didn’t attend the hearing, said the responsibility for the agency fell to him. He has been on the job for roughly 90 days, previously serving as Department of Correction commissioner.
He insisted Hamilton got a better deal for taxpayers on the Department of Aging deal.
“At the end of the day, 14 Wall St. was over $31 million dollars cheaper,” Molina testified.
Restler called for a review of Hamilton’s dealings.
“The fact that we have no comprehensive review of Deputy Commissioner Hamilton’s decisions, no guardrails imposed, no modified duty is concerning,” he said.
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