In the blood sport of New York City real estate, where comity can be hard to come by, the developers of some of the city’s most prized parcels appeared to be in agreement about one thing when they met in private this week.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor, had to be taken down.
“Our goal is anybody but Mamdani,” Marty Burger, the chief executive of Infinite Global Real Estate Partners, wrote in one of two emails sent ahead of the meeting that were obtained by The New York Times.
To help, Mr. Burger proposed that his peers start by putting in $25,000 each to a new super PAC, New Yorkers for a Better Future, or to seed other groups. He cited potential ad campaigns attacking Mr. Mamdani; spending plans to boost specific rivals; and other efforts to register and turn out thousands of voters who typically sit out Election Day.
A month after Mr. Mamdani’s primary victory stunned New York’s business elite, its leaders have begun cranking open a powerful gusher of outside spending to try to stop the man whose socialist policies they fear could sour the city’s business climate. But with fewer than 100 days to go, they are still very much searching for a unified plan that could work.
On Monday, the men whose companies run the Seagram Building and Hudson Yards joined the call for one anti-Mamdani super PAC, while leaders of a different super PAC invited donors to a $1,000-per-person fund-raiser scheduled for Thursday.
“Fighting Mamdani is expensive,” the organizer, Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor, wrote on the invitation. “But allowing him to win will cost you more.”
All told, there are already at least five groups jockeying to claim a reservoir of potentially tens of millions of dollars — each with their own leaders and goals. Several more groups are said to be in various stages of formation, including a campaign to register and mobilize anti-Mamdani voters that is likely to be run by Lisa Blau, the investor married to the chief executive of Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards. Others involve Republican allies of President Trump.
Corporate leaders — some of whom already contend that Mr. Mamdani’s past support for defunding the police, which he has disavowed, could destabilize the city — may only find more motivation to donate to defeat him after a deadly shooting in Midtown sent the staff of the N.F.L., Rudin Management and Blackstone into lockdown.
“This tragedy is not just a moment of mourning; it’s a call to reject policies that would make our city even more vulnerable,” said Jared Epstein, a real estate executive who co-hosted a fund-raising call with 200 potential donors for New Yorkers for a Better Future last week.
It remains far from clear if the anti-Mamdani forces can find a successful path, especially when the opposition is divided among several more moderate candidates: Mr. Adams; former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo; Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee; and Jim Walden, a lawyer.
Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the Mamdani campaign, predicted that the donors, whom she described as “MAGA billionaires who spent millions trying to defeat Zohran in the primary,” would again fail.
“New Yorkers are ready to turn the page on endless corruption and backroom deals,” she said.
Mr. Mamdani, 33, has moved to meet his critics face to face. He has scheduled a meeting with Jed Walentas, the Two Trees executive who leads the Real Estate Board of New York, and the board’s president, James Whelan, according to two people involved in the effort. It will follow meetings with other corporate executives whom he has tried to mollify.
A recent poll paid for by the board showed only long-shot paths to victory for Mr. Cuomo and for Mr. Adams, who opted out of the Democratic primary after the Trump administration abandoned his federal corruption indictment.
The poll, which has not been previously reported, showed that more than 60 percent of New York voters view the mayor negatively, and more than 50 percent view Mr. Cuomo negatively, according to two people briefed on the survey. In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans six to one, those numbers bode poorly for anyone challenging Mr. Mamdani.
Three political consultants who have either started independent expenditure groups or have advised donors looking to fund one said they warned donors that the likelihood of defeating Mr. Mamdani is slim unless either the mayor or former governor drops out.
Some of the city’s wealthiest political donors appear to be holding their powder, at least for now. “I tell everybody, don’t get excited,” said John Catsimatidis, a billionaire Republican businessman, who has hosted events for both Mr. Adams and Mr. Cuomo. “Let’s wait a few weeks.”
Still, many of the city’s business class see Mr. Mamdani, who wants to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy to expand social services, as an existential threat and want to start fighting now.
“I’m 100 percent sure that this is not a money-lighting-on-fire session,” said Jason Haber, a prominent real estate broker and a longtime Democratic activist who led the fund-raising call for New Yorkers for a Better Future with Mr. Epstein. His real estate listings include a $23 million penthouse near Gramercy Park. “Every single one of his plans will hurt the very people that he thinks it will help.”
There is early evidence of cross-pollination. Both Ms. Blau and her husband, Jeff Blau, attended Monday’s call for New Yorkers for a Better Future. Ms. Blau pitched the real estate crowd on her group, whose nonprofit structure she noted would allow donors to avoid timely disclosure requirements, two attendees said.
And Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic consultant in the city, started his own group, Protect the Protectors, ostensibly to do the same work.
In an interview, Mr. Sheinkopf disparaged other consultants for leading donors astray, but also acknowledged he was working with both Ms. McCaughey and former police commissioner Ray Kelly’s PAC, Save NYC, and the pro-Adams super PAC, Empower NYC.
“The usual gaggle of members of the political industrial complex are going to grab as much cash as they can,” he said.
Fix the City, a super PAC that spent $22 million for former Mr. Cuomo’s losing bid in the Democratic primary, plans to continue operating as a pro-Cuomo, anti-Mamdani vehicle.
So far, Empower NYC is the only super PAC directly supporting Mr. Adams, who has taken extraordinary steps to court big donors, including allowing the billionaire financiers Bill Ackman and Daniel S. Loeb to vet his campaign manager. Abe George, a friend of Mr. Adams’s and its chairman, said he hopes to raise $15 million for the mayor.
“This guy survived Covid and the migrant crisis,” Mr. George said in an interview. “Crime is down, jobs are up.”
Initially, Mr. Burger also argued for strategically supporting Mr. Adams.
“We need one of these two candidates to drop out of the race by mid-September,” Mr. Burger wrote in an email to associates Monday morning. “Tactically, we think spending money to try to move Adams in the polls helps accomplish this” by either boxing out Mr. Cuomo if Mr. Adams rises in popularity, or by persuading Mr. Adams to drop out of the race if he does not.
But during Monday’s meeting to promote New Yorkers for a Better Future, Aby Rosen, whose RFR Holding LLC owns the Seagram Building, took issue with that approach, according to two meeting participants. Organizers gave assurances the group would be candidate-agnostic.
Mr. Rosen and Mr. Burger declined to comment for this story.
Mr. Mamdani, for his part, has at least two super PACs supporting him. One has yet to report much fund-raising. The other, New Yorkers for Lower Costs, has raised more than $100,000 since the primary. This week, the group is launching a merchandise store. “Freeze the Rent” beer koozies will retail for $6 a pop.
“The only faction that Adams and Cuomo have successfully consolidated are Trump donors, which only deepens their unpopularity with an overwhelmingly Democratic electorate,” said Bill Neidhardt, spokesman for New Yorkers for Lower Costs.
New Yorkers for a Better Future, which only formed in July, appears to be having the most success with donors so far. Jeff Leb, an operative behind it, said he had already raised millions, though he would not give a precise total. Ricky Sandler, a financier who co-hosted Monday’s event with Mr. Burger, has pledged $500,000. (The pledge was first reported by Hell Gate, a local news site.)
“This isn’t just another election fight; it’s a stand against a risky ideology,” Mr. Leb said. “Civic, community, and business leaders across the city aren’t about to hand New York’s future over to an extremist.”
Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting.
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times.
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
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