Freshly released internal documents revealed that the former mayor’s team wasn’t much behind him on this particular real estate plan.
During his tenure, Bill de Blasio attempted to buy a controversial Manhattan building, but newly unveiled emails show he didn’t have the support of many of his top staffers.
Thanks to an archive of communications discovered by Greg Singer, owner of East Village’s legally besieged and apparently crumbling PS 64, the public now has access to a series of comments made by de Blasio aides about one of his unpopular proposals. is secret, Crain’s first reported,
Singer, who has owned the 152,000-square-foot East Ninth Street building since 1998, dug up the emails through public records requests and what is legally known as the discovery process as part of his pending lawsuit against the city .
For years, Singer – who is also a developer, and who recently filed for bankruptcy – claimed the city prevented him from turning this local monster in student housingAnd de Blasio acted on behalf of Aaron Sosnik, a hedge fund magnate and school-redevelopment opponent who lives in a condo building next door. abandoned hulk,
The emails support Singer’s argument, his lawyers say, according to Crain’s.
“Everybody fights him over it,” de Blasio’s first deputy mayor Anthony Shores wrote in a 2017 email, discussing how a series of top aides tried to persuade the now-former mayor to buy the structure. Tried it, which cost around $60 million at the time.
“Do you know how much money this is going to cost us??” Alicia Glenn, de Blasio’s deputy mayor for housing, responded, “It’s crazy.”