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Several prominent New York real estate developers pushing to build a casino in Times Square are among the top donors behind Mayor Adams’ massive $1.3 million campaign fundraising haul over the past six months, according to campaign finance filings released late Monday.
Marc Holliday, the chairman and chief executive of SL Green, the city’s largest commercial real estate firm, gave $2,100 to Adams’ 2025 reelection bid on May 24, the filings from the Campaign Finance Board show. About a month later, Stephen Green, SL Green’s founder who handed over the day-to-day reins to Holliday in 2019, gave another $2,100, the maximum amount allowed by law in a non-election year.
The maxed-out contributions from the two real estate honchos — part of $1,300,304 raised by Adams’ campaign between Jan. 14 and this past Thursday — are significant as SL Green is in the midst of a bidding war to secure a license to develop a casino in Times Square.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)
To succeed in its casino bid, which was put together with gaming giant Caesars and hip-hop legend Jay-Z, SL Green is likely to need buy-in from Adams, as well as Hochul and state lawmakers.
In addition to donating to Adams, SL Green in February retained Frank Carone, Adams’ former chief of staff, to do consulting work on its casino proposal, which would involve redeveloping a major chunk of a 54-floor tower in Times Square.
As a recently departed top city official, Carone is barred by law from formally lobbying Adams’ office until next year, though he can still legally provide SL Green with valuable insight into the inner workings of the Adams administration. Alongside doing consulting for SL Green, Carone is serving as Adams’ de facto reelection campaign manager.
The SL Green contributions are not the only Carone tie in Adams’ latest campaign finance disclosure.
Lori Fensterman, a marketing executive at Abrams Fensterman, a law firm where Carone used to be an executive partner, gave $2,100 to Adams on May 2, according to the records. The next day, Dawn Puricelli-Addabbo, the director of human resources at the firm, gave another $2,100, the records show.
Since leaving the Adams administration, Carone has returned to Abrams Fensterman in an “of counsel” capacity. Fensterman’s husband, Howard Fensterman, is the founder of the firm and a longtime business associate of Carone’s.
Another notable revelation from Adams’ latest disclosure is that his campaign shelled out a whopping $75,000 on hosting a “New York, New York”-themed fundraiser at the St. James Theatre on Broadway on June 16. The expense is listed as a liability in Adams’ filings, meaning it has not been paid off yet.
Adams spokesman Evan Thies said the campaign raked in roughly $600,000 from the Broadway event — nearly half of the entire amount raised since January.
The latest $1.3 million haul from Adams means he has raised nearly $2.6 million for his reelection bid from more than 2,000 individual contributors to date, giving him a significant financial edge against any challenger he may face in the 2025 election.
“Our campaign is well on its way to raising the maximum amount it can spend under the city’s campaign finance system — just 18 months into the mayor’s tenure — because New Yorkers see that Mayor Adams is lowering crime, increasing employment and moving our city in the right direction,” Vito Pitta, Adams’ campaign counsel, said in a statement.
Under city law, mayoral campaigns can’t spend more than $15.8 million on the 2025 primary and general election cycles. To date, Adams’ camp has spent $403,602, most of it on fundraising and staff, the latest records show.
Pitta said about $250,000 of the money raised by Adams’ campaign came from local donors who chipped in less than $250 each, meaning that portion is eligible for matching under the city’s public matching program. That in turn means the Adams campaign’s coffers could see an infusion of another $2 million once matching funds kick in, according to Pitta.
Dwayne Montgomery is pictured during his arraignment in Manhattan earlier this month. (Curtis Means/Pool)
The incumbent does not currently face any 2025 primary or general election challengers.
But progressive Democrats critical of Adams’ centrist policies on housing, public safety and other issues have recently spoken both publicly and privately about the need to recruit a candidate to run against him.
Adams’ latest campaign fundraising report comes at a tumultuous time for the mayor’s political operation.
Earlier this month, six city residents, including a retired NYPD inspector with personal ties to Adams, were indicted on criminal charges that they funneled illegal donations to the mayor’s 2021 campaign in an effort to curry favor and receive favorable city contracts from his administration.
The mayor was not implicated in the straw donor scheme.
However, the indictment alleged one of Adams’ campaign representatives kept in touch with the retired NYPD inspector, Dwayne Montgomery, over the course of the scheme. That campaign representative has not been identified.
Adams administration officials revealed this past Friday they pulled a city contract expansion from Ecosafety Consultants, a firm tied to the suspected schemers, days after the indictment.
The indictment came a couple of months after the Campaign Finance Board socked Adams’ 2021 campaign with $19,600 in fines for violating local regulations, including accepting an unlawful amount of money from five donors with business before the city.
Meanwhile, recent polling indicates Adams is seeing some of his support slipping.
A Siena College poll conducted last month found that 46% of New York City residents hold a favorable view of his performance in office, while 39% hold an unfavorable view. That compares to the 49% favorability and 35% unfavorability rating he scored in a similar survey conducted by Siena pollsters in mid-May.
Copyright © 2023, New York Daily News

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