Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is looking for new brokerage firms to represent the city when it rents and buys space from private landlords — a lucrative position that can produce million-dollar commissions but left one of the city’s recent brokers, Cushman & Wakefield, ensnared in scandal.
A notice posted last week said the Department of Citywide Administrative Services is seeking as many as five firms to serve as the city’s “tenant representative,” responsible for making deals to augment the city’s existing 22.9 million, 380-lease portfolio of offices, garages, warehouses and more. Since 2017, the city has been represented by two firms, Cushman and CBRE — but those contracts expired last fall, and the city opted to extend only CBRE’s contract through November 2025.
That means Cushman & Wakefield is no longer working for the city, except for finalizing a few projects the firm was working on before their contract ran out, DCAS spokeswoman Anessa Hodgson confirmed. Hodgson did not say why the city did not extend Cushman’s contract, but the decision follows months of scrutiny of the firm’s vice chair, Diana Boutross, and her close ties to Adams administration officials.
Last fall, Manhattan prosecutors seized phones belonging to Boutross and two top Adams administration officials after the trio arrived at JFK Airport following a personal vacation together in Japan. Boutross was not accused of wrongdoing, but one of the aides, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, was charged months later with taking bribes from real estate developers.
The new solicitation comes with two caveats that could help the city avoid a repeat of the scandal surrounding Cushman. It specifies that the chosen broker must disclose any conflicts of interest, including whether its account manager has “any personal relationships with DCAS staff, client agencies, or the City of New York.” It also says the account manager must have “a minimum of 2 years’ experience as a commercial real estate broker or principal.”
A lawsuit filed in January by Cushman’s former subcontractor alleged that Boutross had been installed in 2023 as supervisor of the city account at the behest of Jesse Hamilton, a longtime Adams ally and top DCAS official who heads the city’s real estate portfolio. Boutross, a retail broker, lacked experience on commercial or office leases before being picked for the job, and the suit alleged that she conspired with Hamilton to steer lucrative leases toward her own firm. (Cushman & Wakefield denied the claims and is trying to dismiss the suit.)
Boutross is also personal friends with Lewis-Martin, Mayor Adams’ former top adviser; and traveled to Japan with both her and Hamilton. In a tense October hearing, City Council members pressed city officials to explain Boutross’ apparent lack of qualifications, and DCAS leaders admitted that the agency ignored the objections of its own legal counsel when it awarded a Lower Manhattan office lease to landlord Alexander Rovt, a major Adams campaign donor.
Amid the uproar, the Adams administration said last fall that it would “pause” the planned lease at Rovt-owned 14 Wall St., which would have housed the Department for the Aging.
Cushman & Wakefield did not respond to questions about whether it plans to bid on the city’s new opening. The Real Deal first reported on the details of the solicitation.
Brokers have until June 24 to bid for the contract, which will run from Nov. 1, 2025 to Oct. 31, 2028.
The city does not pay its brokers directly, instead allowing the tenant representatives to take commissions up to 5% of the cost of an annual lease.
Although the city does not typically disclose the cost of its leases, some details emerged at last year’s council hearing: A 2022 lease deal for the Administration for Children’s Services at 110 William St. in the Financial District cost the city $28.8 million in its first year and $30.7 million in subsequent years for the 630,000-square-foot-space, according to Councilman Lincoln Restler.
A broker on that deal could then take an annual commission starting at $1.4 million from the building’s landlord.
