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New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s success has billionaires and business leaders gearing up to support Mayor Eric Adams. They see him as the next-best alternative in the city’s upcoming election, and they’re throwing him elite fundraising events.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Party primary win against former governor Andrew Cuomo sent the city’s business community into a tizzy. Now the überwealthy and New York’s real estate scene are rallying around a not-so-new candidate: Mayor Eric Adams.
Several billionaires and moguls have thrown their support behind the scandal-laden mayor in their latest attempt to thwart Mamdani, including Bill Ackman. The hedge fund manager endorsed Adams on X, pitching him as someone prepared to take on the popular democratic socialist candidate. Meanwhile, over the July 4 weekend Kenneth and Maria Fishel, the couple behind a New York real estate empire and the firm Renaissance Properties, cohosted an Adams fundraiser in the Hamptons. The Fishels were joined by billionaires John and Margo Catsimatidis, real-estate investor Jared Epstein among others in attendance.
“This is about keeping New York vibrant, keeping it free from socialism and keeping it safe,” Kenneth Fishel told Fortune about his fundraiser. The event at his Hamptons home, he said, counted more than 100 guests from all sectors of business and industry. Although the exact amount raised at the party hasn’t been tallied up yet, said Fishel, he predicts the event will ultimately bring millions to the Adams campaign.
“It was a great day,” Todd Shapiro, publicist for the Adams campaign, told Fortune. “The mayor felt it was one of the best fundraisers he’s had.”
Since the event, Fishel said fellow business and real estate leaders have told him they plan to follow his lead with similar events in support of Adams. They support the mayor’s policies on housing, zoning, capitalism, and public safety that they see as favorable. These industry titans are particularly concerned by Mamdani’s plans to freeze rents on rent-stabilized apartments, and increase income and corporate taxes. As for Adams, he has voiced opposition for significantly raising corporate taxes and supports streamlining the housing development approval process to create more affordable and regular housing.
Marc Holliday, chief executive of the New York-based real-estate investment trust SL Green Realty, is reportedly throwing an Adams fundraiser on Wednesday with dozens of New York’s real estate elite in attendance. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that attendees paid around $2,000 to join the festivities. Shapiro confirmed these details to Fortune.
Similarly, real estate investor Epstein has his own plans to support Adams’ reelection efforts. Epstein, according to the Journal, has several Adams events planned for August including a private dinner and campaign events to target younger voters using social media influencers. Shapiro and Epstein confirmed plans for these events to Fortune. He has appeared repeatedly on Fox Business and on social media calling on voters to cast their ballots for Adams.
“The goal is to open minds, not lecture. I want people to hear from Eric directly, to see and feel his deep love for New York, his understanding of its challenges, and his commitment to all New Yorkers,” Epstein told Fortune. He sees Mamdani’s platform as “neither economically viable nor legally achievable,” pointing to proposed tax hikes and Mamdani’s promise to make buses free.
“I don’t believe in perfection, I believe in leadership. Adams isn’t running on ideology or slogans. He’s making hard decisions, stabilizing the city, and delivering measurable results,” he added.
Alongside his events for younger voters, Epstein said he will be opening his Hamptons home to a small group of influential donors. “These are people who don’t just write checks, they mobilize communities,” he said, but did not name any of these high-profile individuals.
Several other business leaders in the city have opened their wallets to the mayor. An intermediary for Madison Square Garden Entertainment has contributed $29,400 to Adam’s re-election efforts. The company is led by businessman James Dolan, and $18,000 of the businesses’ contributions came from members of the Dolan family. Meanwhile, an intermediary for the Real Estate Board of New York contributed $3,100 on the group’s behalf through several donors. By donating through an intermediary, meaning a go-between organization linking donors with organizations they wish to support, donors receive counsel and administrative support in their contributions and are able to pool larger sums of money from various sources for a specific recipient.
Individual contributors to the Adams campaign have also helped fund his re-election bid. However, their donations are capped at $2,100 per New York campaign finance laws.
Joseph and Jack Cayre, who run real estate giant Midtown Equities, and their spouses, have donated $8,000 to Adams’ reelection bid. Several members of the Gindi Family, which operates Century 21 department stores and the real estate firm Gindi Equities, have also contributed to the candidate, adding more than $10,000 to his war chest. Several thousand in donations were also made by real estate mogul Alexander Rovt and his son Maxwell, who own a large real estate portfolio in New York and overseas.
Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Marc Holliday, and members of the Cayre, Gindi, and Rovt families did not respond immediately to a Fortune request for comment.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
