No one leaving New York because of Mamdani, say top real estate CEOs

New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s views have sparked fears that there will be an exodus of companies and capital from the city. But two of the city’s top commercial real estate executives say it’s simply not true, based on leasing activity and new building investments being made, with no pullback in plans ever since it became clear Mamdani would win, and through the democratic socialist’s official election.

“New York City is back,” said Scott Rechler, CEO of RXR, at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference in New York on Thursday. “The people who work here, live here, they feel the energy, they have the conviction, and they have every right,” he said.

“In our business right now, we are seeing CEO after CEO committing to the city,” Rechler said. “We’re seeing a record level of leasing in office buildings. And it’s not just for next year, it’s for 2028, 2030, 2032,” he added.

“We will hit over 40 million square feet in commercial office leases signed at the end of this year,” said Bill Rudin, co-executive chairman of Rudin Management. “Companies are growing here,” he said. “We haven’t seen any diminishment in meetings with brokerage firms,” he said of activity since Mamdani’s election. “People keep saying, ‘Any impact?’ No one has put their pencils down. No one is calling the moving trucks. Companies are expanding and taking space,” Rudin said.

One good example: hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin of Citadel Securities, who is known for being outspoken with his conservative political views. Rudin, along with Steve Roth and Vornado Realty, and Griffin, is breaking ground on a two-million square foot new office building at 350 Park Avenue. “Ken is committed and will have more employees at 350 Park than in Miami,” Rudin said. And while the plans pre-date Mamdani’s rise, Rudin noted they recently filed for a building permit and Griffin is a partner in the project, “so he is moving ahead and very excited about it and very much involved in the design and development of the project. … How’s that?” Rudin added.

RXR just signed a 300,000-square-foot lease with a law firm moving in 2029, and Rechler noted that the firm came back last week after the election and said they need to expand by another 200,000 square feet. JPMorgan’s new building already needs seats for another 5,000 workers beyond the 10,000 it already can hold.

Rechler noted his firm already has an anchor tenant for a 2.8-million-square-foot project that will replace a Hyatt hotel in the 2031-2032 timeframe. “People believe in New York,” he said. RXR has $7 billion in project financing and “you don’t get that if people don’t believe in the future of New York,” he added, though he said it may require “a little bit of a longer lens.”

But even right now, he said, in the wake of Mamdani’s election, the correct word to use with…