Posted on 11/09/2025 6:54:29 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
Billionaire real estate investor Barry Sternlicht's firm is considering relocating from New York now that Zohran Mamdani has been elected mayor, and he says other businesses will likely follow suit.
Sternlicht, the chairman of Starwood Capital Group, said the city will essentially turn into Mumbai under Mamdani's tenure, suggesting that tenants will be emboldened not to pay their rent.
He said: 'The far-left gets really nuts and says the tenants don’t have to pay. Well, you can’t kick them out if they don’t pay.
'So, the neighbor finds out the neighbor isn’t paying, and they don’t pay, and the next guy doesn’t pay, and then you’re basically going to turn New York City into Mumbai.'
Mamdani wants to strengthen eviction protection for tenants, which could make it take longer for landlords to evict them. However, none of Mamdani's policies, including the freeze in rent costs for stabilized tenants, would excuse nonpayment.
Speaking to CNBC, Sternlicht said any lapse in public safety under Mamdani will encourage people and companies to leave the city.
He said: 'If people feel like their kids aren’t safe on the streets, they will pull them out of school and they will leave. And if he defunds the police or he doesn’t give them the honor and prestige they deserve, I think the city’s in for a really tough time.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
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Commercial real estate owners are in a ‘world of hurt’ in New York City.
If they stay, they will face low occupancy and non-paying tenants.
If they sell, they face taking a loss on the property.
Adding to their woes is the increase of number of ‘work-from-home’ businesses who no longer need to rent office space.
And another woe is the use of ZOOM to bring together out-of-town workers for a meeting instead of having the workers fly into NYC for a face-to-face meeting and stay at a fancy hotel nearby the office.
Non-payment is more than landlords not receiving rents. If they aren’t paid, repairs are the first thing to go. From there, is a long slippery slope to abandoning the property. End result: A Detroit-like skyline of empty house with no property tax revenues to support infrastructure, which leads to decline in other services. Shortly, the city dies.
Not paying rent in only the beginning... why follow any laws when cops are rendered powerless and the 'coin of the realm' is pity party equals privilege? Florida is already getting calls on our better real estate in the Sebastian down to Palm Beach and Miami areas.... The good thing is Mamdani doesn't have to power to build iron curtains, 'neural zones' and kill zones like commies usually so to stop people from escaping. Still, best to get out before he comes up with penalties for leaving...
THIS BILLIONAIRE NEEDS ANOTHER DIVISION:
SQUATTER REMOVAL-—FEE==1 MONTH”S UNPAID RENT
THIS BILLIONAIRE NEEDS ANOTHER DIVISION:
SQUATTER REMOVAL-—FEE==1 MONTH”S UNPAID RENT
UPRIGHT OR PRONE-—THEIR CHOICE-—BUT GONE—GONE—GONE
HE MIGHT CONSIDER LAS VEGAS
Better to cut losses and get the hell out with small losses rather than ride it down to nothing...Commie hellholes NEVER get better. Ask the people from East Germany or the folks from Havana...
A “LOSS” IS A “TAX” ISSUE
STAYING ALIVE IS A “NOW” ISSUE
There’s a video with New Yorkers convinced that the wealthy won’t want to leave Wall Street.
I’m not kidding.
If the idiots who live in NYC haven’t left by now, they’ll probably never leave.
Could be worse. Could become another Oakland.
After writing my doom prediction for NYC commercial real estate owners, here may be one bright spot.
Make NYC the Artificial Intelligence Capital of the World.
This would start by Trump converting the Trump Tower to a facility with thousands of computers and servers on each floor.
True but the difference for NYC is it will always likely to have a taxing “sugar daddy” to bail them out of the consequences of their bad choices. First taxing “sugar daddy” NY State. It has a Rat governor and a Rat majority legislature that will be under enormous Rat solidarity political pressure to bail NYC out. Second taxing “sugar daddy” is FedGov. Yes FedGov under a GOP administration is not likely to bail them out but the chances are not zero! Under a future Rat administration chances are 100% it will happen.
Cuba, other Communist states had no higher level “sugar daddies” to turn to so the consequences of the utter and dangerous effects of communism were quickly felt.
I was thinking about one industry that now longer relies on renting office space for their workers.
TRAVEL AGENTS
For example, in years past the cruise lines rented office space for hundreds of staff to field phone calls from customers.
Today, when you call the cruise line reservation number, you are most likely talking to someone who is sitting at home and is being paid by the cruise line to handle your reservation.
This is one industry having an impact on office buildings.
The Commercial Real Estate owners need to reinvent themselves quickly and come up with plans to deal with the future of business.
As the non-Muslim cops flee, they will be replaced by sharia compliant personnel. Good luck holding pride parades in the near future.
You're right that President Trump isn't going to bail out New York City- and the commie mayor will run out of surgar daddies quickly with the expensive scams he's pushing... it could get interesting fast - not 'Cuba' fast - but fast. Thanks for your comment.
Oakland still has its seaport.
Anthony Scotto of the longshoremen's union chased away the New York City seaport a generation or two ago.
Really Wall Street is the only "industry" left. And they've had contingency plans for moving since the Cold War.
I see the slumlords of NYC having a few options. 1) sell out and leave (might be too late for this). 2) kick out every tenant and board up the buildings until sanity returns (if and when); and 3) torch the building and claim insurance.
He makes a good point if late.
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