By Sophie Lindqvist

Fifteen chief executives — representing more than 100,000 employees across real estate, film, sports and healthcare — have joined New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Business Advisory Council, a year after many of them warned his election would damage the city's economy. Business, by most accounts, is proceeding as usual. That claim deserves scrutiny, and the numbers so far mostly hold up.

Neil Blumenthal, co-CEO of the nearly $3 billion eyewear company Warby Parker, admits he was "very concerned when he was elected." He has not stopped worrying. The Democratic Socialists of America's platform, Blumenthal notes, includes government takeover of private companies and abolishing the police; Mamdani has "said some things to moderate those positions," but at times still advocates policies Blumenthal calls deeply unpopular. Warby Parker is staying: "We're a New York brand," Blumenthal says.

Who signed up — and why it matters

The council's roster is revealing precisely because it includes former opponents:

• A real estate CEO who gave $250,000 to Mamdani's mayoral opponent, Andrew Cuomo.
• An investor who wrote an op-ed predicting Mamdani would bankrupt the city.
• A former bank CEO who appears on Fox News discussing "prioritizing capitalism."
• The chair of a hospital finance committee where Mamdani backed striking workers.
• Hamdi Ulukaya, billionaire CEO of Chobani, an immigrant advocate who once played street soccer with the mayor.

Neither Mamdani nor council members agreed to be interviewed for this story — a silence worth noting. At their first meeting in September, one point of alignment emerged: high housing and childcare costs make hiring in New York difficult.

What does the détente rest on?

Largely on delivery. The city has fixed more than 200,000 potholes in 2026, more than in all of the prior year under Eric Adams. The mayor's approval rating stands at 69%. All five of his ballot initiatives — including faster bike-lane and construction projects — passed handily. DSA membership has grown to over 120,000 nationwide; the New York chapter alone counts 15,000, more than the entire national organization had in 2016.

Anthony Shorris, who heads the New York City Economic Development Corporation, credits an energy that had "been missing for quite a while." Yet he concedes the dynamic: business leaders "love mayors, they get mad at mayors."

The truce is fraying over specifics. To announce a "pied-à-terre tax" (a levy on second homes valued at $5 million or more for houses, $1 million for condos and co-ops, at rates of 0.8% to 6.5%), Mamdani released a video outside Citadel CEO Ken Griffin's 24,000-square-foot penthouse. Griffin claimed the video "put me in harm's way" and threatened to halt a planned Midtown headquarters. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman called it "a huge mistake," saying the mayor had "scared away" productive New Yorkers toward Miami.

The data, so far, undercut the exodus narrative. Available office space fell to its lowest level since 2020. Contracts on $10 million-to-$20 million properties rose nearly 40% year over year in the second quarter. Griffin is proceeding with his Midtown tower; Ackman announced a $660 million brain research institute on the West Side.

What can the mayor actually enact?

Here the theater thins. Mamdani's proposed income tax hike — 2% on earners above $1 million, projected at $4 billion annually — and a corporate tax rise from 7.25% to 11.5%, projected at $5 billion a year, require approval from Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature. Hochul backed the pied-à-terre tax but shows little appetite for the rest. On Election Day, Mamdani sidestepped whether he had discussed new taxes with the governor.

The most concrete intervention is a $70 million pilot of five city-owned grocery stores, one per borough, opening by late 2027, run by private operators and promising prices roughly 30% below nearby stores on fresh produce, meat and seafood. Critics — including left-leaning wonks — call it expensive; a coalition of small grocers and the National Super Association have sued, alleging illegal anti-competitive behavior. Venture capitalist Bradley Tusk is blunt: "I think it's incredibly stupid, but it's at least a real attempt at socialism." Consultant Errol Schweizer, who helped design the program, counters that 1.5 million food-insecure New Yorkers represent "a market failure." The metric, he says, is simple: will people shop?

The complicating factors nobody mentions first

Mamdani is a quarter into his term without a crisis. The AI bubble could pop; the bond market is creaky; tensions over policing linger. His rent freeze covers roughly 1 million units — about 40% of the city's rental stock. He has, notably, retained Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, which business leaders uniformly called his best decision.

Even opponents concede alignment on housing: REBNY's James Whelan backs the goal of 200,000 new affordable apartments over a decade. And childcare has produced genuine cooperation, with the Partnership for New York City, Tech:NYC and REBNY forming a council to push public investment.

What does this change for executives? Not market caps — leverage. As deputy mayor Julie Su puts it, the council reflects "a real desire to learn from one another." Shorris frames the bet plainly: "I don't think the growth and justice objectives are incompatible." The next three years — or seven — will test whether that sentence survives contact with the tax proposals.