Questions emerge about NYC economy plan from Hochul, Adams

Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul may be thinking too big.

The two top elected officials unveiled an ambitious plan this past week for how to supercharge New York City’s economy — but members of the panel that produced the blueprint is skeptical of the viability of portions of it.

“There’s too many ideas to do — that’s the problem,” said Mitchell Moss, a New York University professor of policy and planning who served on the so-called “New New York” panel. “It’s going to be very hard to implement.”

The solution to that, he said, would be to focus on a handful of proposals from the “Making New York Work For Everyone” plan, table some for later and refine or drop others. In his opinion, the top priority should be changing laws to better allow the conversion of office space in Midtown Manhattan into homes.

“That would unleash investment and generate housing,” he said.

“In order to get conversions you have to get higher densities for residential,” Moss added. “The city has to change its density.”

Moss was referring to the interior square footage permissible for residential buildings under city law — known commonly among planners as the floor area ratio — but to change that, state lawmakers in Albany would first have to lift some of its own strictures.

Once the ability to convert high-rise office space to residences is established, Moss said planners must identify where conversions are most feasible.

“There’s real support for this because it will create jobs,” Moss said of the plan’s push for more conversions. “You don’t want to have vacant buildings, and one thing New York does well, it knows how to build. If you give the incentives, we know how to pour concrete.”

A major question mark that looms over the plan is funding.

The 159-page report — which floats 40 recommendations for various major public works projects, including everything from pedestrianizing large swaths of Manhattan to boosting funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — contains no estimates for how much the various initiatives would cost or how it would be bankrolled.

Spokespeople for Adams did not return requests for comment. Hochul spokesman Justin Henry said details on funding about the plan are forthcoming in next year’s state and city budgets.

Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference, which advocates for an expansion of affordable housing, agreed with Moss that the mayor and governor are on the right track with turning vacant commercial spaces into homes.

“I think they’re thinking about the right things,” she said.

Mark Ginsberg, a partner of Curtis + Ginsberg Architects, a firm that has worked on numerous affordable housing projects, said commercial conversions can be easier than new developments, since the structures are already in place.

”It can be more flexible,” he said.

Another thing the plan has going for it is the cordial relationship that Hochul and Adams have so far shared — in contrast to the animosity that characterized the past dynamic between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“That’s a big deal because all of these challenges require collaboration between the city and the state,” said Kathy Wylde, who also served on the panel and is president of the Partnership for New York City. “The whole key is how do we accelerate recovery.”

An integral part of that equation will be providing incentives for landlords and developers to undertake building retrofits, Wylde suggested — especially given the city’s dire fiscal outlook over the next several years. She supports renewing an incentive that was in use for decades and which led to the conversion of industrial loft space to apartments in the 1970s and 80s. That incentive, which was laid under state law and known as J-51, lapsed earlier this year.

“As we look at the city going into difficult financial times, we have to look at more flexibility when it comes to public incentives to encourage private investment, she said. “It’s the only way all of this is going to happen.”

More than two decades ago, Carl Weisbrod, another panelist and former City Planning Department director, helped shepherd zoning changes in lower Manhattan that paved the way for office space to become residences. That effort was a success, but Weisbrod said one flaw in its execution was that it “missed the boat on affordability.”

“We don’t want to do that again,” he said. “We don’t want to see conversions that result in bulk condos.”

Despite the importance of rezoning efforts and conversions in Midtown, Weisbrod also said it’s more important that both Midtown and lower Manhattan maintain their commercial vitality.

“Midtown and downtown are global centers,” he said. “Their workforce has to come not just from the surrounding areas and the rest of the city, but from the region as well.”

A key to maintaining their role, he predicted, will also include providing options that make it easier to come to work — through things like better childcare and mass transit — and reducing vehicular congestion in those parts of town through congestion pricing, which would essentially put a tax on driving in Manhattan from 60th St. to the Battery.

In addition to action from the state Legislature, some of the plan’s most ambitious provisions on expanding housing access require action from the City Council.

Adams’ relationship with the Council has grown increasingly hostile recently, as he’s doubled down on ripping into progressive members of his party, including delivering a fiery speech last week in which he told left-wing Democrats to “leave” New York.

A Council insider said that political battle is doing the mayor no favors when it comes to advancing his housing agenda through the chamber, whose Progressive Caucus is in the majority.

“No one is advising him and saying, ‘This all sounds great, but how are we going to get this across the finish line when they don’t like you?’” the insider said.

“I don’t know why no one over there is thinking of that,” the source added, referring to the mayor’s office.

Some left-leaning housing advocates say there’s a gaping hole in the Hochul-Adams plan.

“Nowhere does this plan even mention protections from eviction or soaring rent hikes,” said Cea Weaver, a campaign coordinator at Housing Justice For All. “A real housing plan that works for all New Yorkers would include Good Cause protections from eviction, rental assistance for homeless New Yorkers, and meaningful investments in social housing. Anything else is just a giveaway to private developers.”