The internal email sent to multiple FDNY chiefs in the spring of 2022 ordered that the fire alarm system inspection at 50 Hudson Yards be expedited, and it made clear where this dictate was coming from: the office of Mayor Eric Adams.
The gleaming glass 77-story office tower built by The Related Companies on the far West Side was set to open later that year, and since Adams had arrived at City Hall that January, the mega-developer had been lobbying top mayoral staff, including Adams’ then–chief of staff Frank Carone, on the development of Hudson Yards.
“The request to expedite Hudson Yards comes from the Office of the Commissioner as a top priority from city hall,” the April 8th email from FDNY Deputy Chief Kevin Murphy advised.
Murphy added that if other inspections had to be rebooked to clear the deck for the 50 Hudson Yards job, so be it: “Any feedback or consequences from rescheduled/cancelled inspections on other affected projects can be handled by” top tier chiefs in the department “if necessary.”
A few months later on Oct. 19, Adams appeared at the grand opening of 50 Hudson Yards, declaring the building’s debut “marks another major milestone in New York City’s continued economic recovery from the pandemic.”
The subject line of the email to speed up inspection of the site gave the context: “DMO-Priorities list update.”
DMO stands for Deputy Mayor of Operations, and the list in question is now part of an ongoing federal probe into Mayor Adams’ fundraising. Among other matters, the FBI is looking into whether Adams’ administration gave preferential treatment to favored entities that supported his 2021 mayoral campaign.
Originally the DMO list was part of an effort begun by Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, to cut red tape for small businesses. But the chief of the FDNYs Fire Prevention Bureau, Joseph Jardin, has alleged in a lawsuit that it wound up catering to “friends” of City Hall, allowing them to jump the line ahead of ordinary New Yorkers.
Jardin has talked to the FBI about the list and his concerns about favored entities gaining preferential treatment that could ultimately raise safety issues by deferring more urgent inspection requests. He says he was demoted by Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh after complaining to higher-ups about the list and other protocols she proposed that he objected to.
The FBI and Manhattan federal prosecutors are examining whether any of the developers or business owners placed on the list got there as a result of providing financial support to Adams’ campaign, according to a source familiar with the ongoing probe.
Among the interactions under FBI scrutiny: a 2021 request then-Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams forwarded to the FDNY seeking an expedited fire safety system inspection on behalf of the developers of a Midtown East building designed to house the Turkish consulate. The request came not long after a Brooklyn contractor with ties to Turkey raised $43,000 for Adams’ mayoral campaign.
A June 2022 snapshot of the DMO list shows The Related Companies’ 50 Hudson Yards at the top of the list for the fast-track treatment — but there were multiple other big-money players in line as well.
They included JoJi, an exclusive sushi restaurant developer SL Green was planning to open in the basement level of One Vanderbilt, its new office tower next to Grand Central Station, where Omokase dinner costs $375 per person excluding drinks, tax and gratuities. As THE CITY reported, the placement on the DMO list came after SL Green’s CEO Marc Holliday threw a fundraiser for Adams’ 2021 campaign that reaped $23,599.
Another top-tier developer slated for a sped-up fire alarm system inspection near 50 Hudson Yards was “Facebook/Farley,” a reference to the former U.S. Postal Service James A. Farley building adjacent to Penn Station. Farley is developed by a partnership between The Related Companies and Vornado Realty, another New York City real estate powerhouse.
In the months preceding their placement on the DMO list, both Related and Vornado were lobbying the top members of the mayor’s staff on issues that appear to be related to 50 Hudson Yards and the Farley building. At the time they’d leased out much of those properties to Meta, the owner of Facebook, and they needed the Fire Department to sign off on fire alarm systems in both locations to fully open up.
In lobbyist disclosure forms filed with the City Clerk, Related disclosed that from January through April its executives were pressing City Hall on Hudson Yards-related issues, listing their intended targets for lobbying as Carone, his deputy chief of staff Menashe Shapiro and Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer.
In those same months Vornado was also pressing City Hall on the “Penn District,” a reference to the proposed transformation of Penn Station and the surrounding neighborhood that was, at the time, a top priority of Vornado. The Farley building is within the district.
City records show in March and April 2022, Vornado executives and lobbyists the firm had hired were pressing top mayoral aides on the Penn District, including Carone and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks.
In July 2022, both Related and Vornado participated in one of Adams’ signature efforts to try and address street homelessness, a chronic issue in the Penn Station area. Both firms joined a list of developers and business entities contributing to a fund that would steer $8 million to a nonprofit, Breaking Ground, to increase the number of outreach staff working to convince homeless individuals living in the streets to come into shelters.
Last month Vornado CEO Steven Roth was one of the notable New Yorkers Adams quoted in his press release trumpeting a record number of jobs — an announcement Adams made at a Vornado building next to Penn Station known as PENN 1 — in the heart of the Penn District.
“There is no better place to share this news than PENN 1,” Roth said. “The building demonstrates the innovation and investment that is driving our city’s growth, and as we continue our multi-billion transformation of the PENN DISTRICT, New Yorkers and the world will witness the success that awaits.”
Asked by THE CITY how Vornado’s Farley building got put on the FDNY’s priority list for inspections, a spokesperson for Vornado said the firm declined comment.
Related did not respond immediately to THE CITY’s questions.
Charles Lutvak, a spokesperson for Mayor Adams, did not respond to THE CITY’s questions about 50 Hudson Yards. A spokesperson for Kavanagh also did not answer THE CITY’s questions about City Hall’s involvement in expediting the inspection. Instead, they released a brief general statement about the FDNY’s commitment to public safety:
“As the Mayor, Fire Commissioner, and Deputy Mayor of Operations have repeatedly stated, our priority has always been constituent services and getting things done while simultaneously protecting our city’s residents. When it comes to land use and development, it is common practice to prioritize requests to ensure we are meeting our city’s needs,” the statement read.
“Making these decisions is our job in city government, and we do it all the time. Through improvements to the inspection process, the Fire Department has been able to cut our inspection wait time from 18 weeks to four weeks, and has conducted fire alarm inspections at a rate 33 percent faster this year than last year.”