City Hall Okays Renting Space in Building Owned by Adams Donor, Despite Ethical Questions
The administration of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams is pushing ahead with a deal to rent office space in the Financial District from a politically connected landlord.
The arrangement will move the City’s Department for the Aging (DFTA) to 14 Wall Street, under terms that will earn the building’s owner, billionaire landlord Alexander Rovt, more than $77 million over the 21-year life of the lease. Mr. Rovt and members of his family have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Adams’s abortive reelection campaign, as well as to the legal defense fund the Mayor established to combat various criminal probes into alleged misconduct.
Controversy over this deal erupted last fall, focused on Jesse Hamilton, then deputy commissioner for real estate services at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), which handles real estate transactions for other Mayoral agencies. In September 2024, Mr. Hamilton was stopped by investigators from the office of Manhattan District Attorney as he disembarked from a plane at Kennedy Airport, returning from a vacation in Japan on which he was accompanied by a real estate broker who represents commercial landlords in lease negotiations with DCAS. During this stop, detectives seized phones from Mr. Hamilton and the real estate broker.
In August of this year, Mr. Hamilton was indicted by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on one count of conspiracy in the fourth degree, for allegedly fast-tracking development projects while steering City contracts to favored developers, and accepting free home renovations in exchange for this largesse. Several days after the indictment was announced, Mr. Hamilton resigned from his post in the Adams administration.
But during the months between the confiscation of Mr. Hamilton’s phone and his resignation, City Hall first paused the DFTA lease at 14 Wall Street, then announced that it was being reviewed by the Mayor’s Office of Risk Management. In June, that office concluded that the deal for DFTA office space at 14 Wall posed no ethical concerns, following which DCAS announced (in August) that it was moving ahead with the FiDi office rental. The Risk Management panel has refused to make public the details of its investigation.
On September 21 (in a development first reported by Crain’s), DCAS finalized its lease negotiations with the owners of 14 Wall Street, clearing the way for DFTA to begin moving into the space later this year.
When allegations of impropriety surrounding the lease at 14 Wall Street first emerged last fall, Community Board 1 chair Tammy Meltzer sent a letter to the City Planning Commission (which has final approval over such plans) urging “a thorough review of the proposed lease [to] ensure transparency in the decision-making process before approving any acquisition.” She continued, “we are deeply troubled [that decisions] could have been influenced by individual personal gain,” and asked for assurances that the plan is “a prudent use of public funds and not a benefit to select private parties.” The letter concluded, “given the gravity of the recent reports, we believe it is critical that these concerns be addressed prior to moving forward with this lease.”
A spokesman for DCAS did not respond to a request for comment.