Empower can take donations far in excess of the $2,100 maximum allowed for contributions directly to campaigns \u2014\u00a0a limit that drops to $400 for people with business pending before city government. Like all such committees, Empower supports a candidate (Adams) but isn\u2019t allowed to coordinate actions with his campaign.<\/p>\n
The group had raised $1.4 million through Aug. 27, almost all of it from real estate and financial interests, records show. And donations continued to arrive well into August, even as Adams\u2019 standing in the polls remained stuck at the very back of the pack.<\/p>\n
![\"Storm](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/101724_housing_adams_1.jpg\")
Eric Adams was framed by new housing construction in Greenpoint, Oct. 17, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n
Attorney Abe George formed Empower in the days after a judge approved the Trump Justice Department\u2019s request to dismiss a federal corruption case against Adams, and the mayor announced he was skipping the June Democratic primary to run as an independent<\/a> in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since then, Adams has remained last or near last in poll after poll. Last week, as calls for him to drop out escalated, he revealed<\/a> in a closed-door meeting with business leaders that he would soon be conducting a private poll to see whether he should drop out.<\/p>\n But throughout the summer, not only did developers make sizable contributions to Empower NYC, they also switched to backing Adams after having backed Andrew Cuomo\u2019s losing primary bid for the Democratic nomination.<\/p>\n One of the biggest donations to Empower NYC came from Gary Barnett, founder of the mega-builder Extell Development, who made a $250,000 contribution in July. He had given $10,000 to the pro-Cuomo Fix the City PAC just three weeks earlier.<\/p>\n Barnett had been lobbying the Adams administration on behalf of his real estate projects \u2014 including a 1,200-foot-high tower he\u2019s planning for the site of the Disney TV production complex on West 66th Street.<\/p>\n Starting under the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, a community group called Landmark West! had been working with the planning department on a proposed zoning change that would have greatly restricted the height of development on the block where Barnett seeks to build his tower. <\/p>\n The group\u2019s executive director, Sean Khorsandi, said that the executive director of the Department of City Planning at the time, Edith Hsu-Chen, supported the zoning change.<\/p>\n That all changed under the Adams administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n City records show that in early 2024 one of Extell Development\u2019s lobbyists targeted Hsu-Chen regarding \u201czoning issues\u201d related to the tower at 77 W. 66th St. Around that same time, the Department of City Planning suddenly suggested the group meet with Extell. Then Hsu-Chen reversed course and said the plan did not fit into the Adams City of Yes agenda to build affordable housing throughout the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n Khorsandi says the group\u2019s proposal would have created 1,400 affordable units compared to 400 offered by Extell.<\/p>\n George Janes, an urban planning consultant who helped draft the rezoning for Landmarks West!, was shocked when he noticed Barnett\u2019s name as one of the top donors to Empower NYC.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that somebody comes in after we spend all of this time writing this application?\u201d Janes said. \u201cTo have somebody come in and dump a big pile of money and blowing everything up, it\u2019s like, \u2018Come on!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Barnett did not respond to THE CITY\u2019s emailed questions seeking comment.<\/p>\n Domino Effect<\/strong><\/p>\n Two Trees is another developer that supported Cuomo\u2019s spending group in the primary but has since ponied up for Adams.\u00a0<\/p>\n In April, while Cuomo was far ahead in the polls, Two Trees gave $250,000 to the pro-Cuomo group, Fix The City. In August, Two Trees KG LLC, changed course, donating $100,000 to the pro-Adams Empower NYC.<\/p>\n Two Trees needs City Hall\u2019s approval to expand one of its signature developments on the Brooklyn waterfront: luxury condo and office towers built on the site of the former Domino Sugar factory just north of the Williamsburg Bridge.<\/p>\n The firm was paying a lobbyist to target top staff in Adams\u2019 Department of City Planning regarding \u201cDomino Site Applications,\u201d records show. Two Trees wants to build a new 1.17 million square foot tower on the site, which would add 1,262 units (including 430 designated as \u201caffordable\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n The plan also seeks permission to build balconies on existing Domino towers and remove an odd skybridge that was part of the existing development.<\/p>\n The local community board and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso gave their advisory approvals to the project \u2014 with the proviso that Two Trees include a school in another project it was building a few blocks north on the East River called River Ring. The City Planning Commission held a hearing on the project July 30 but has yet to vote on it. Ultimately it will also require both City Council and mayoral approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n Neither Two Trees nor its representatives at Berlin Rosen responded to THE CITY\u2019s repeated calls seeking comment about the donations and the zoning change the developer seeks.<\/p>\n \u2018I Thought Eric Had the Best Chance\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Just south of the Williamsburg Bridge, another developer was finishing up yet another luxury condo tower on Brooklyn\u2019s Gold Coast dubbed One Williamsburg Wharf. The developers, Access Industries and the Naftali Group, were banking on wrapping up construction by this fall.<\/p>\n On April 23, city building inspectors showed up to perform a site safety check, which the building passed. Two days later, Access wrote a $25,000 check to Empower.<\/p>\n The company was founded by Sir Len Blavatnik<\/a>, a Ukrainian-born billionaire knighted by the Queen of England for his philanthropic largesse, who had not given a dime to support Adams before that. (The Blavatnik Family Foundation is a donor to THE CITY<\/a>.) In fact, in June his partners on the wharf tower, the Naftali Group, had given $150,000 to Fix The City, the pro-Cuomo group.<\/p>\n City inspectors returned in September in response to a complaint about unsafe conditions at the site. They imposed a partial stop-work order and issued three violations to contractors on the job that included unsafe scaffolding erected on the roof, buildings department records show. The development\u2019s subcontractors paid $6,000 in fines, records show, and the stop work order was quickly lifted after inspectors deemed the scaffold safe.<\/p>\n Access did not respond to THE CITY\u2019s emailed questions.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Jeffrey Gural, another Empower donor who\u2019d first bet on Cuomo. In April, when Cuomo appeared to be sailing to City Hall, Gural \u2014 CEO of GFP Real Estate, a major developer and property manager \u2014 gave Fix The City $25,000. But in August, with Adams still trailing in the polls, Gural switched horses. He and two relatives made donations to Empower totaling $45,000.<\/p>\n The Gural family manages and has developed properties across the city, including a 266,000 square foot LifeScience Building called Innolabs<\/a> in Court Square. The building has a lease deal with the city\u2019s Economic Development Corporation and it lies adjacent to a massive rezoning Adams has proposed for 54 blocks of Long Island City. The Gurals also own property inside the rezoning area.<\/p>\n The rezone<\/a>, dubbed OneLIC, was approved<\/a> by the Planning Commission two weeks ago, with the City Council expected to vote on it by the end of the year. The Adams administration touts it as a way to transform the neighborhood by creating 15,000 housing units, adding 3.5 million square feet of commercial space, and improving the waterfront.<\/p>\n In an emailed response to THE CITY\u2019s questions, Gural denied that the Long Island City rezoning played any role in his decision to give to the Adams committee after giving to the Cuomo committee.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter Andrew lost, I thought Eric had the best chance to beat Mamdani had Andrew dropped out. That is no longer the case. I have also known Eric for over 20 years and thought he did a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n 14 Wall Street<\/strong><\/p>\n Another deep pocket donor seeking favorable treatment from the Adams administration was Alexander Rovt, a Ukrainian billionaire who owns a big office tower at 14 Wall Street where the city is planning to relocate the offices of the Department for the Aging.<\/p>\n Rovt has been a consistent backer of Adams since 2023 when he made a $1,500 donation to the mayor\u2019s re-election bid. That December he and two relatives gave three donations totaling $15,000 to the mayor\u2019s legal defense fund.<\/p>\n In June, days after Adams announced he was skipping the Democratic primary to run as an independent in November, Rovt wrote out a $15,000 check for Empower.<\/p>\n For months the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) had been looking to relocate the aging agency from a city-owned property to another location in Lower Manhattan. DCAS staff initially zeroed in on two sites: 250 Broadway, where other city agencies already had offices, and Rovt\u2019s building, 14 Wall St.<\/p>\n The staff favored 250 Broadway, but Jesse Hamilton, a longtime associate of Adams the mayor had put in charge of city leases, intervened and began trying to steer the lease to 14 Wall St.\u00a0<\/p>\n After THE CITY revealed Rovt\u2019s donations and Hamilton\u2019s involvement, City Councilmember Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) held a hearing<\/a> zeroing in on\u00a0 Hamilton\u2019s actions. The DFTA lease was put on hold while the Mayor\u2019s Office of Risk Management began examining what had occurred. The city Department of Investigation also launched its own probe.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/062624_domino_factory_1.jpg\")
The former Domino Sugar refinery in Williamsburg was redeveloped into a mixed-use office building, June 27, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n![\"Workers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/101024_14_wall_st_1.jpg\")
Workers walked into 14 Wall St. near the Stock Exchange, Oct. 10, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n