NYC Aging leader pushed real estate deal now under investigation, emails show

NEW YORK — An internal dispute over a lucrative city real estate contract reached the highest echelons of the two agencies involved, according to emails obtained this week by POLITICO.

The disagreement unfolded earlier this year after an official who oversees city real estate deals, Jesse Hamilton, overruled the results of a formal bidding process for a new headquarters for the city Department for the Aging, a POLITICO investigation found.

Hamilton — a longtime personal friend of Mayor Eric Adams who serves as deputy commissioner for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, or DCAS — ordered his team to halt negotiations with the winning bidder and instead steered the lease to 14 Wall St., a building owned by billionaire mayoral donor Alexander Rovt.

By way of explanation, Hamilton said NYC Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez favored 14 Wall St. over the winning bidder in DCAS’ procurement process, 250 Broadway, POLITICO previously reported.

The newly obtained emails show Cortés-Vázquez subsequently making a personal appeal to outgoing DCAS Commissioner Dawn Pinnock to resolve the “dispute/conflict.”

Cortés-Vázquez told Pinnock her team was aligned with Hamilton on leasing space at 14 Wall St., according to the emails, which POLITICO received through a request under the state Freedom of Information law.

“You can move them past this impasse, and ensure they are inclusive of the Agency’s perspective and needs,” Cortés-Vázquez wrote in a June 4 email to Pinnock, who was scheduled to depart at the end of the month. “I ask you to please break this unnecessary log jam before you leave.”

Pinnock replied the next day, pledging to “look into the issue below and identify a path toward resolution,” the records show.

It’s unclear what — if anything — Pinnock did next; she did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the Aging Department declined to comment on Cortés-Vázquez’s apparent preference for 14 Wall St. When POLITICO was reporting its initial investigation earlier this year, the department had declined to confirm Hamilton’s assertion that she favored the building.

The emails show just how intense the dispute between Hamilton and experts in the real estate division became, and they shed new light on how city officials handled the internal disagreement before DCAS ultimately moved forward with 14 Wall St.

The Adams administration has since paused the deal for further review by First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, and the city Department of Investigation is reportedly probing Hamilton’s role in steering the lease to Rovt’s building.

In a statement shared with POLITICO by a spokesperson, DCAS Commissioner Louis Molina said the department stands by its determination that 14 Wall St. is the “most suitable and cost-effective site” for the Aging Department.

“We prioritize the needs of our client agencies and work to ensure that we negotiate lease deals that keep the best interests of New Yorkers at the front of mind,” Molina said in the statement. “In bureaucracy, there are often forces — even from within — that try to undermine authority, and we cannot allow that to determine what we do on behalf of the millions of New Yorkers that rely on us.”

Additional emails obtained through POLITICO’s request show a back and forth about the headquarters relocation between DCAS’ Hamilton and the Aging Department’s first deputy commissioner and chief operating officer, Michael Ognibene, in the days after Hamilton ordered his staff to pause negotiations with the procurement’s original winner. The thread was forwarded to the Aging Department’s communications team the morning before POLITICO published its original investigation.

The contents of those emails, however, are almost entirely redacted.

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