RXR Chairman and CEO Scott Leshler and Rudin Management Co-Chairman Bill Rudin speak at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha event in New York on November 13, 2025.
Adam Jeffrey | CNBC
New York Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani’s views have raised concerns that businesses and capital will leave the city. But two of the city’s top commercial real estate executives say that is simply not true, given that the plan has not been withdrawn through the Democratic Socialist Party’s official election, and that there has been rental activity and investment in new buildings since Mamdani’s victory became clear.
“New York City is back,” RXR CEO Scott Lechler said Thursday at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference in New York. “The people who work here and live here feel the energy and have the beliefs and have every right,” he said.
“Right now in our business, we have CEO after CEO contributing to this city,” Rechler said. “Office building rentals are at record levels, and that’s not just for next year, but for 2028, 2030 and 2032,” he added.
“We expect more than 40 million square feet of commercial office leases to be signed at the end of this year,” said Bill Rudin, co-executive chairman of Rudin Management. “Businesses are growing here,” he says. Regarding Mamdani’s activities since his election, he said, “We have not seen a decrease in meetings with securities companies.” “People keep saying, ‘What’s the impact?’ Nobody’s putting down a pencil. Nobody’s calling the moving trucks. Businesses are expanding and taking up space,” Rudin said.
One good example is Ken Griffin of Citadel Securities, a hedge fund billionaire known for being outspoken about his conservative political views. Rudin and Steve Ross, and Vornado Realtyand Griffin are breaking ground on a new 2 million square foot office building at 350 Park Avenue. “Ken is enthusiastic and intends to have more employees at 350 Park than in Miami,” Rudin said. And although the plan predates Mamdani’s rise, Rudin said they recently applied for a building permit and that Griffin is a partner in the project. “So he’s moving forward, he’s very excited, and he’s very involved in the design and development of the project. … How do you like it?” Rudin added.
RXR just signed a 300,000-square-foot lease with a law firm that will move in 2029, but Rechler noted that the firm returned last week after the election and said it needs an additional 200,000 square feet of expansion. JPMorgan’s new building will need to seat an additional 5,000 people on top of the 10,000 it can already accommodate.
Rechler noted that his company already has an anchor tenant for a 2.8 million-square-foot project that will replace the Hyatt hotel by 2031-2032. “People believe in New York,” he said. He added that RXR has $7 billion in project financing and that “if people don’t believe in the future of New York, you don’t understand it,” but said it may require “a slightly longer lens.”
But even now, after Mr Mamdani’s election, the correct word to use for tenants in the high-quality office space market is “urgency” in closing, he said, noting that he has heard reports of companies signing leases that would normally take a year to be agreed within 21 days. “That’s the market. … A huge pipeline on the office side. I’ve never seen it in my career and I’ve never seen tenant demand as strong as it is right now,” Rechler said.
“The information we’re getting in real time as of yesterday and today is that tenants are still in the market and looking for good, quality space,” Rudin said.
One reason for the bullish outlook for New York’s real estate market is the need to attract and retain young professional talent.
“The talent that companies want is right here in New York City,” Rudin said.
“All these young professionals want to live in New York,” Rechler added, citing a 1.5% vacancy rate in the city’s multifamily real estate market. “People want to be here,” he said.
Their views on the mayor (both real estate company executives have met with him) are not without reservations.
“Mamdani doesn’t necessarily align with the heartland of capitalism,” Rechler said. “That’s the biggest risk. We have a man who is more of a caricature than a character,” he said, adding that it could easily define Mamdani as an inexperienced social media savvy sociopath.
Rechler said this risk is emerging, especially among foreign institutional investors, and could impact investments in New York multifamily projects. “When I leave town and travel around the world, people have a lot of anxiety,” he says. “When you hear the words ‘rent freeze,’ just hearing that word…maybe there might be some backlash there,” Rechler said, citing the fact that the mayor has the power to appoint officials to the commission that oversees these policies.
Rechler said some institutional investors with whom RXR is talking about making large investments in New York City “want to know what the outcome is,” adding that it could “chill the flow of capital” among those investors.
“I’ve been to the Middle East and Europe, and the first thing people want to talk about is Mamdani,” he said. Rechler, who is also a board member of the New York Fed, said the topics are the same. “The New York Fed’s board of directors wants to talk about this, and its staff, who travel all over the world, are taking questions as they travel.”
Both real estate CEOs stressed that those concerns seem overblown for a city that has survived and thrived through the coronavirus, the financial crisis, 9/11 and President Bill de Blasio’s administration. They also noted that New York had a $60 billion budget when Michael Bloomberg was mayor. With a current budget of $116 billion, they believe Mr. Mamdani’s management approach may be more pragmatic than his campaign platform suggests.
Rudin said the issues the mayor-elect has raised, such as housing affordability and availability, are legitimate issues and “we will try to work with him.”
“When he first started running, there was no mention (of) the private sector in housing,” Rudin said. But “very liberal Greenwich Village Congressman Ed Koch” added that when he became mayor, he realized he needed to move downtown to get things done. “I hope Mayor-elect Mamdani understands that we have a $116 billion budget to manage and administer.”
Rudin noted that since Mamdani’s previous campaign, he has signaled a desire to move away from relying on the government to completely dictate housing and instead work with the private sector, adding that now “it is our responsibility to show Mamdani the path of how to build the housing we need.”
Zoran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for New York mayor, speaks at an election rally in Manhattan, New York City, USA, on October 13, 2025.
Angelina Katsanis | Reuters
“The same things that are driving Mr. Mamdani’s success are the same ones that are driving Mr. Trump’s success,” Rechler said, pointing to economic disenfranchisement, especially young people who feel they don’t have the same economic opportunities as previous generations. “There’s dissatisfaction with big business and with government, and they want answers,” he said. “Both the president and the mayor-elect have given simple answers, but frankly, it’s a complex issue that’s not doable as is,” he said, referring specifically to affordable housing in New York’s case.
The housing affordability crisis will not be easily solved. Rudin noted that Mayor Eric Adams’ administration aimed to make Mamdani a success by changing zoning laws across the borough within the last year, but real estate executives said wages, unions, sustainable development policies and tax changes that make building more than 100 units less economically attractive are all obstacles. “So it has to be a time for labor, the governor, the city council, the mayor to come together…if they want housing and we need it too,” Rudin said.
“I talked to him before the election, and my sense was that he was a very smart young man who was willing to listen and listen to feedback on this issue,” Rudin added.
Real estate executives cited tax incentives created in the wake of the coronavirus to allow the conversion of older office buildings into residential properties as another area where they can help build affordable housing, and said those incentives are tied to buildings that maintain 25% of their units at affordable rents rather than market rates.
Rechler pointed out that despite Mamdani’s rich rhetoric about taxes, the reality is that New York governors have had significant fiscal authority over the city since the financial crisis of the 1970s. “At the end of the day, the governor has veto power over taxes,” Rechler said. “I had breakfast with her yesterday, and she told me that income taxes cannot be raised on her watch.”
He added that there will be political pressure on the governor, given the need for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s own election.
“There’s a gubernatorial election in a year, and she has to act as that firewall, otherwise she won’t be governor in a year,” Rechler said. “The gubernatorial election will be a contest for Mamdani.”
For now, Rechler said perhaps the most telling thing about his interactions with Mamdani is the comparison to how former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio interacted with business leaders during his rise as a star.
“I met with[Mamdani]alone for an hour, and he came in prepared, pivoted from campaigning to governing ideas, and said all the right things,” Rechler said, recalling the September meeting when it was clear the election result was certain. “The proof will be in the pudding, but he recognizes that he needs to rely on public-private partnerships and that is the only way to build the type of housing he wants.”
“I want to contrast that with when I met with de Blasio,” Rechler added. He said it was a meeting of 12 business leaders, and the former mayor “looked around the table of business people and said, ‘None of you elected me, so I’m not here to serve you.'” And we’ve lived with that for eight years. This guy at least starts with, “I know that to be successful, I need business people to work with.”
