Freshly released internal documents have revealed that the former mayor’s team was very much not behind him on this one particular real-estate plan.
During his tenure, Bill de Blasio attempted to purchase a controversial Manhattan building, but newly unveiled emails show he didn’t have the support of many of his top staffers.
Thanks to a collection of communications unearthed by Gregg Singer, the owner of the East Village’s legally besieged and visibly crumbling PS 64, the public is now privy to a series of comments made by de Blasio aides regarding an unpopular proposal of his, Crain’s first reported.
Singer, who has owned the 152,000-square-foot East Ninth Street building since 1998, dug up the emails through public records requests and what is known legally as the discovery process as part of his pending lawsuit against the city.
For years, Singer — who is also a developer, and who recently filed for bankruptcy — claimed the city has prevented him from transforming this local behemoth into student housing, and that de Blasio worked on behalf of hedge fund magnate and school-redevelopment opponent Aaron Sosnick, who lives in a condo building next door to the abandoned-looking hulk.
The emails support Singer’s argument, his attorneys say, according to Crain’s.
“Everyone fought him on this,” de Blasio’s first deputy mayor Anthony Shorris wrote in one 2017 email, discussing how a series of top aides tried to convince the now-former mayor not to purchase the structure, which was valued at approximately $60 million at the time.
“Do you know how much money this is going to cost us????” de Blasio’s deputy mayor for housing Alicia Glen responded, adding “This is nuts.”