The protege of Mayor Eric Adams put in charge of city leases, who vacationed last month with a top broker for Cushman & Wakefield, approved three multi-million dollar lease deals arranged by that real estate firm, city officials confirmed Tuesday.
In late September Jesse Hamilton, deputy commissioner for real estate in the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), traveled to Japan with a group that included Diana Boutross, the Cushman executive who handles the firm’s interactions with DCAS.
Upon their return at JFK Airport, a representative of the Manhattan District Attorney seized Hamilton’s phone as part of an ongoing investigation of corruption at City Hall. Boutross’ phone was also seized, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to THE CITY.
On Tuesday Councilmembers Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) and Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan) presided over a hearing on city leasing, questioning DCAS Commissioner Louis Molina on Hamilton’s handling of leases since Adams appointed him in the summer of 2022. It’s part of two Council investigations into the deals; separately, City Comptroller Brad Lander is preparing an audit.
In response to questions Restler sent last week, Molina Monday stated that DCAS did not pay for Hamilton’s trip to Japan, but also did not ask Hamilton who funded his travel expenses in Japan, stating, “DCAS is not involved in personal employee travel.”
Because Hamilton traveled to Japan with an executive of a firm without clarity about who paid for his travel, Restler asked whether Hamilton or anyone at DCAS had requested a waiver from the city Conflicts of Interest Board to sign off on the travel. Another member of the group with Hamilton in Japan was Adam Clayton Powell IV, a lobbyist who had pressed Hamilton on behalf of another client earlier this year. Also on the trip was Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Mayor Eric Adams’ chief advisor.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Molina said he was not concerned with Hamilton’s travel to Japan with Boutross — who handles DCAS leases for Cushman & Wakefield — because the trip was not official city business.
“I’m not here to comment on the personal relations people have outside work,” he said in response to Restler’s questions about whether Hamilton’s vacationing with Boutross was “appropriate” given their work-related interactions over millions of dollars in leases that generate big commissions for her firm.
Molina appeared unconcerned about Hamilton’s actions, asserting that he had no intention of going back and reviewing all of the lease deals Hamilton approved for any signs of conflict of interest.
He did, however, provide for the first time details of Hamilton’s approval of three Cushman-arranged leases, including the biggest one DCAS has signed off on in the last five years, a 21-year lease to rent 641,000 square feet of space to relocate the city Administration for Children’s Services one half block south from 150 William St. to 110 William St. in lower Manhattan.
Cushman gets paid by the landlord based on a percentage of the annual rent. In the 110 William St. lease, the first year’s rent comes to $28 million. Under the lease approved by Hamilton, the city has also agreed to reimburse the landlord for more than $42 million in renovation costs there.
Although Restler requested that Hamilton testify, he did not show up; Molina told reporters afterwards that as the commissioner, he made the call of who would testify.
“The decision rests with me as the commissioner of the agency,” he said.
Selling Bronx Space
The hearing also focused on a pending lease arrangement to relocate the Department for the Aging into 80,000 square feet at 14 Wall St., a tower owned by Alexander Rovt, a billionaire who steered $15,000 from his family to Mayor Adams’ legal defense fund.
Sources say Hamilton intervened after lower-level DCAS staffers had already signed off on renting the space to relocate Department for the Aging from a city-owned building to 250 Broadway, a privately owned office tower that already houses multiple city agencies.
Molina said at the hearing that he was not aware of any donations Rovt made to the mayor’s legal defense fund and defended the switch from 250 Broadway to 14 Wall St. — a move Hamilton approved even though DCAS staff had scored 250 Broadway higher than 14 Wall in two of three categories and a DCAS attorney called the change “inadvisable” due to the “optics” of going with a lower-scored landlord.
To justify the decision, Molina insisted it saved the taxpayers millions of dollars because 250 Broadway required extensive renovations while 14 Wall St. was move-in ready, and he said it was Department for the Aging’s preferred choice.
“At the end of the day the best fiscal decision for the city and the preferred decision for the Aging was 14 Wall and it saved the city over $31 million dollars,” he said, calling 14 Wall a “turnkey location.”
The terms of that lease have yet to be finalized, but this transaction was arranged by a second brokerage DCAS relies on, CBRE. Shortly before Hamilton’s involvement in steering the lease to 14 Wall St., two CBRE executives each made donations of $2,100 — the maximum allowed — to Mayor Adams’ 2025 re-election campaign.
The City Council also played excerpts of a video showing Hamilton — wearing a hard hat and construction vest — standing outside the Bronx Logistics Center, a privately owned building that the city was considering buying, which Hamilton called “amazing.”
Highlight of the hearing – a very strange video of Jesse Hamilton promoting a private building in the Bronx the city was considering buying. Of course that purchase would generate millions for Cushman realtor Diana Boutross – a friend of Hamilton and Ingrid Lewis-Martin pic.twitter.com/bnxmDX5ynB
— Courtney Gross (@courtneycgross) October 29, 2024
He was joined by George Donohue, the assistant director of leasing for DCAS, and Erik Abad, who works for the Office of Management and Budget.
“I’m sure this is a win-win for everybody involved,” Hamilton said on the video, which had briefly been posted to YouTube before it was taken down by former Commissioner Dawn Pinnock, a source told THE CITY.
The building is a massive warehouse in the South Bronx that in September was seeking to fill more than 500,000 square feet of empty space. It was built by a group of investors called Turnbridge Equities, through a limited liability corporation called 980 BLC Owner that’s lobbied Hamilton last year. Restler told THE CITY that the property is managed by Cushman Wakefield.
Late Tuesday, Molina stated, “I was unaware of the video shared during today’s hearing, and I fully intend to conduct a review. Given what I have seen, I can say — with confidence — that this was an unauthorized video production that does not reflect the position of our agency.”
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