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A newly formed group that says it represents hundreds of New York City businesses is suing Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his...
28/08/2026

A newly formed group that says it represents hundreds of New York City businesses is suing Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his city-owned grocery store pilot program. But exactly which businesses are behind the effort — and who is paying for the fight — is much less clear. By the coalition’s own account, that’s the point.

The Multicultural Business Coalition, or MBC, launched in May as an umbrella organization for dozens of ethnic chambers of commerce and business groups. It quickly made Mamdani’s grocery stores its primary focus and, this week, filed two lawsuits seeking to stop the program.

MBC’s umbrella includes the National Supermarket Association, United Bodegas of America, the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce and the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce. MBC said about 65 organizations had joined the coalition.

Harder to pin down are the actual businesses MBC says it represents.

The coalition’s class-action complaint says MBC has “thousands” of members, including hundreds of small New York City grocery stores. But the complaint does not list those grocers, making it difficult to determine how many are direct MBC members, how many are being counted through affiliated chambers or trade groups, and how many are even aware their businesses are claimed to being represented in a lawsuit against the city.

Questions also remain unanswered about who is financing the fight.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/politics-policy/cny-mbc-sues-mamdani-who-funding-20260827/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

An Upper West Side grocery store that’s been in business for more than 40 years is expected to close after allegedly fal...
27/08/2026

An Upper West Side grocery store that’s been in business for more than 40 years is expected to close after allegedly falling behind on its rent, according to an attorney representing the owner of the building.

Barzini’s, the longtime market located at 2451 Broadway, allegedly owes more than $1 million in rent and will soon face eviction, said Joseph Cervini, an attorney at his namesake law firm Cervini Law Group.

The owner of the 6-story building is a private investor through the entity 250 West 91st Realty LLC, said Cervini, who declined to disclose the identity of his client. The investor purchased the property in 2023 for $9.8 million, records show.

Barzini’s first opened in the early 1980s, between West 90th and West 91st streets. It was ordered to close temporarily in January 2025 after state inspectors found rat infestations on site as well as moldy cheese, the New York Post reported at the time. Upper West Siders also noted on X (formerly Twitter) that the smell of rotting food emanates from inside.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/commercial/cny-upper-west-side-barzinis-to-close-20260825/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

After years of losing ground to other states, New York’s share of the nation’s millionaires increased in the latest avai...
26/08/2026

After years of losing ground to other states, New York’s share of the nation’s millionaires increased in the latest available tax data.

New York accounted for 9% of U.S. tax filers reporting at least $1 million in adjusted gross income in 2023, up from 8.7% a year earlier, according to IRS data analyzed by the Citizens Budget Commission in a report.

New York City’s share also increased slightly, from 4.2% to 4.3%.

In raw numbers, New York added 1,900 millionaire filers in 2023, bringing the total number who call the state home to 71,680. The city, meanwhile, added 542 millionaire filers, bringing the total there to 34,307.

Nationwide, the number of millionaire filers declined slightly over the same period, from 800,900 to 799,320- another factor contributing to New York’s larger share.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/politics-policy/cny-new-york-millionaires-increase-20260826/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

A Whole Foods Daily Shop is coming to Murray Hill.The Amazon-owned supermarket chain has inked a 15-year lease for one o...
25/08/2026

A Whole Foods Daily Shop is coming to Murray Hill.

The Amazon-owned supermarket chain has inked a 15-year lease for one of its new, smaller stores at 509 Third Ave., according to a memorandum of lease.

Unlike a full-service Whole Foods market — which spans multiple floors across an average of about 40,000 square feet — the daily shop will occupy just 9,255 square feet on the ground floor of the 35-story building, known as the Murray, at the northeast corner of East 34th Street.

Slated to open in October, the Daily Shop will cater to city dwellers looking to pick up a grab-and-go meal or last-minute dinner ingredients. It will also offer seasonal produce, meat and seafood.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/commercial/cny-whole-foods-murray-hill-20260824/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

A coalition of New York grocers are suing Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration, asking a judge to block the controversi...
24/08/2026

A coalition of New York grocers are suing Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration, asking a judge to block the controversial city-owned grocery store program over claims it could unfairly hurt immigrant- and minority-owned businesses.

The Multicultural Business Coalition is asking a judge to halt the program, known as NYC Groceries, until the city studies how the publicly subsidized stores would affect existing businesses. It is separately seeking class-action status on behalf of additional grocers it says the program is discriminating against.

The group specifically pointed to the planned NYC Groceries location at La Marqueta in East Harlem, which it says is surrounded by Hispanic- and Korean-owned supermarkets that would have to compete with the city-backed store.

The class-action complaint further alleges the program violates state civil rights and equal protection laws because many of the businesses put at a competitive disadvantage are owned by immigrants and minorities.

Mamdani defended the program, saying he was “fully confident in both the legality and the importance” of the initiative and believes it will withstand the court challenge.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/politics-policy/cny-mamdani-city-owned-groceries-lawsuit-20260824/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

When the New York City mayor leaves town — as Zohran Mamdani did this week to vacation with his family in upstate New Yo...
21/08/2026

When the New York City mayor leaves town — as Zohran Mamdani did this week to vacation with his family in upstate New York — a somewhat archaic set of rules kicks in to determine who takes charge at City Hall.

The city charter states that whenever the mayor is absent from the city, the powers and duties of the office temporarily shift to the public advocate, currently Jumaane Williams. If the public advocate is unable to serve, the comptroller, currently Mark Levine, is next in line.

The mayor’s office, however, says First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan is leading day-to-day operations while Mamdani is away.

Both can be true and are consistent not only with the law but also standard procedure and modern day precedent.

Under the charter, Williams technically temporarily acts as mayor, but he is specifically barred from exercising mayoral powers that have been lawfully delegated to a deputy mayor.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/politics-policy/cny-mayor-new-york-vacation-power-mamdani-20260820/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

Financial turbulence has hit a Harlem shopping center that played a key role in the neighborhood’s 21st century renaissa...
20/08/2026

Financial turbulence has hit a Harlem shopping center that played a key role in the neighborhood’s 21st century renaissance.

Harlem USA, a 250,000-square-foot retail and entertainment complex located across the street from the famed Apollo Theater, has struggled with an elevated vacancy rate for several years, and earlier this month its $108 million mortgage was sent to special servicing due to “imminent monetary default,” Morningstar Credit Analytics said in a report.

The building’s developer and owner, Drew Greenwald of Grid Properties, did not return a call to his office. Gotham Organization also owns a stake and did not respond to a request for comment.

Developed in 2000 at the corner of West 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard at a cost of $65 million, Harlem USA was the neighborhood’s first retail property to house national chains. It arrived roughly a year after a Pathmark supermarket opened on East 125th Street, marking Harlem’s first major commercial development completed since the 1960s. However, the Pathmark closed in 2015 after Whole Foods and other national chains came to Harlem, and a 38-story apartment tower is now rising on the former supermarket site.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/commercial/cny-harlem-shopping-center-at-risk-default-20260819/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

Embattled developer Meyer Chetrit recently testified that his real estate portfolio has lost all its value and that he r...
19/08/2026

Embattled developer Meyer Chetrit recently testified that his real estate portfolio has lost all its value and that he relies on money from his children to pay his bills, the latest sign of financial struggles facing the once high-flying real estate family.

“I don’t have one dollar in cash,” Chetrit said in a document filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week regarding a case involving the family’s Hotel Carter, a long-closed Times Square property that has defaulted on more than $200 million in debt.

He also said the firm he runs with his older brother Joseph, the Chetrit Group, doesn’t have a bank account and “used to do real estate,” indicating that the company is not interested in or capable of dealmaking at the moment.

The Chetrit family’s various members had amassed a real estate empire spanning 16 million square feet over decades in the industry, with properties including the Sony Building, the Chelsea Hotel and the Willis Tower in Chicago. But last year Crain’s reported the family had defaulted on more than $1.6 billion worth of debt and faced the possibility of losing numerous properties. In the past 18 months they have indeed lost buildings including the Hotel Bossert in Brooklyn and the Financial District office tower at 1 Whitehall St. at foreclosure auctions.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/commercial/cny-meyer-chetrit-says-portfolio-is-worthless-20260818/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

The Meatpacking District’s retail sector is having a moment.Although it has long been overshadowed by more established h...
18/08/2026

The Meatpacking District’s retail sector is having a moment.

Although it has long been overshadowed by more established hotspots like SoHo and Madison Avenue, the western Manhattan neighborhood is now home to a slew of high-end storefronts as it reaps the benefits of a booming overall market for the industry. Luxury retailers such as Baccarat and Bottega Veneta have recently expanded to the district, joining a tenant roster that also includes brands like Gucci, Hermes and Golden Goose.

“The Meatpacking District has cachet,” Retail by Mona CEO Brandon Singer said. “It has always had this element of being a cool neighborhood.”

That cachet has translated into a strong retail performance over the past few months in particular. In the fourth quarter of last year, for instance, the Meatpacking District’s 14th Street corridor between Eighth and Tenth Avenues was the only one tracked by CBRE that recorded both quarterly and annual decreases in availability.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/commercial/cny-meatpacking-district-strong-retail-performance-20260818/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

A vacant NoLita lot that sits just across the street from Manhattan’s famed Elizabeth Street Garden could soon be redeve...
17/08/2026

A vacant NoLita lot that sits just across the street from Manhattan’s famed Elizabeth Street Garden could soon be redeveloped into boutique luxury condos.

Chelsea-based real estate firm Kings Capital, which acquired 233 Mott St. in July for $7.6 million, is now seeking approval from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to construct a new six-story building with a penthouse on the site. A hearing on the proposed development is scheduled for Aug. 18 before the commission.

Located between Spring and Prince streets, the roughly 2,500-square-foot lot sits adjacent to an individual landmark at 32 Prince St. — the historic former site of the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, which later became the Old St. Patrick’s Convent and Girls’ School. It is also diagonal from the Elizabeth Street Garden, which will remain a green space instead of being transformed into senior housing after the Mamdani administration reached a deal last week with the developers to build housing on a different site instead.

The proposed Kings Capital building would contain five condo units and ground-floor retail, records show. Midtown-based design firm Michael Zenreich Architect would be the lead architect on the project.

Read more here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/residential/cny-233-mott-street-project-20260817/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

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