{"id":356608,"date":"2025-11-05T04:21:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T04:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/356608\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T04:21:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T04:21:24","slug":"everything-will-work-out-if-mamdani-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/356608\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Everything Will Work Out’ If Mamdani Wins"},"content":{"rendered":"

As New Yorkers headed to the polls Tuesday,\u00a0Vornado Realty Trust<\/a>\u00a0CEO\u00a0Steve Roth<\/a>\u00a0got on the phone\u00a0to reassure\u00a0Wall Street about the favorite to become the city’s next mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe election in New York City, with the prospect of a Democrat Socialist mayor, has attracted enormous attention,\u201d Roth said Tuesday morning on the company\u2019s third-quarter conference call.<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Courtesy of Foster + Partners\n <\/p>\n

\n A rendering of 350 Park Ave.\n <\/p>\n

Zohran Mamdani<\/a>,\u00a0the Democratic nominee, came into Tuesday with a sizable polling lead over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/a>. Executives of New York City\u2019s largest real estate firms have all been forced to quell investor worries over what four years under Mamdani could mean.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith respect to the prospect of a Mamdani mayoralty, we have not seen any pullback or hesitancy in space demand from our customers. In fact, the opposite,\u201d Roth said. \u201cNor have we seen any canary in the coal mine indication from the stock market.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old state assembly member has promised to freeze rents on a million NYC apartments and campaigned on discounted groceries, free buses and heightened taxes on the rich, policies that have raised alarm among business and real estate leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all must admit that affordability has become a critical issue and even a lightning rod, as is the cost and availability of housing,\u201d Roth said.<\/p>\n

Vornado owns 26M SF of commercial real estate, the vast majority of which is in Manhattan. In addition, the firm is set to invest\u00a0hundreds of millions\u00a0of dollars adding to that portfolio in the coming years.<\/p>\n

In the third quarter, the REIT\u00a0paid $218M\u00a0to buy a 383K SF office building\u00a0at 623 Fifth Ave.<\/a>, which it plans to bring to Class-A condition. It also announced plans to spend $350M<\/a> to build a 475-unit apartment tower across from Penn Station<\/a>\u00a0in a neighborhood that Roth has dedicated much of his career to reviving.<\/p>\n

Vornado\u2019s 350 Park Ave<\/a>., a to-be-built 62-story office tower, is also in \u201cfull swing,\u201d Roth said. The 1,600-foot supertall, which will be constructed in partnership with Rudin<\/a> and hedge fund billionaire\u00a0Ken Griffin<\/a>, received the green light from the city council<\/a> in September. It is expected to cost $4.5B.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vornado inked 169K SF of office leases during the quarter, below the 240K SF signed in the second quarter and 254K SF the first quarter. Occupancy increased to 88% from just under 87% the prior quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company reported funds from operations, a key metric of REIT cash flow, of 58 cents per diluted share,\u00a0up from\u00a050 cents per share a year prior. The results exceeded Wall Street\u2019s expectations of 55 cents per share<\/a> for the quarter.<\/p>\n

Vornado\u2019s stock price bounced up slightly in after-hours trading following the immediate release of earnings Monday, but it was down 2% by Tuesday afternoon. It has lost 6% of its value this year.<\/p>\n

Despite his cheerfulness Tuesday, Roth\u2019s donations indicate he may not be a Mamdani fan. He gave at least $150K<\/a> to a super PAC backing Cuomo, Mamdani\u2019s chief rival in the race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday afternoon, Mamdani was leading the former governor in the polls, with the majority of voter surveys showing him up by at least 10 points<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mamdani has expressed disdain for Billionaires\u2019 Row, where\u00a0Vornado\u00a0built 220 Central Park South<\/a>. Earlier in the race, the candidate held a rally in the neighborhood,<\/a> saying, \u201cThis is a part of New York City that can boast the cost of an apartment exceeding $200M\u201d while\u00a0residents elsewhere\u00a0are unsure \u201cwhether they can afford their rent, their childcare, their groceries.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Griffin, the\u00a0CEO of Citadel, purchased a penthouse in 220 Central Park South for $238M<\/a>, at the time the most ever paid for a U.S. residence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m an optimist and believe that everything will work out for the best,\u201d Roth said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As New Yorkers headed to the polls Tuesday,\u00a0Vornado Realty Trust\u00a0CEO\u00a0Steve Roth\u00a0got on the phone\u00a0to reassure\u00a0Wall Street about the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":356609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,173857,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,173858,14457],"class_list":{"0":"post-356608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-steve-roth","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa","22":"tag-vornado","23":"tag-vornado-realty-trust"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115495180042789089","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}