A longtime associate of Mayor Eric Adams who oversees city leases installed a real estate broker with close personal ties to himself and another top Adams aide to advise the city on municipal leases, a position that would generate millions of dollars in commissions for their friend, a lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges.
Jesse Hamilton, a deputy commissioner at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), told Cushman & Wakefield, the brokerage that serves as tenant representative for DCAS on millions of dollars in leases, that it would lose that work if it didn’t appoint a specific C&W broker, Diana Boutross, to handle all its city leases, the complaint filed against Cushman & Wakefield in Manhattan Supreme Court charges.
Boutross has “personal relationships” with Hamilton and Ingrid Lewis-Martin, formerly the mayor’s chief advisor, according to the lawsuit. Boutross, Hamilton and Lewis-Martin all vacationed together in Japan in September, and all three had their phones seized by the Manhattan District Attorney upon their arrival at JFK International Airport.
Lewis-Martin resigned her position as No. 2 to the mayor in December after she was indicted by the DA on unrelated bribery charges last month.
During a City Council hearing in October, questions arose over Hamilton’s handling of a lease in a Wall Street building owned by a donor to Adams. In response, First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer began a review of all his activities at DCAS in October. A spokesperson said Tuesday the review is still underway. The Department of Investigation has also opened a probe.
The lawsuit was filed Monday by JRT Realty Group, a female-owned brokerage Cushman & Wakefield retained to help them meet city-set goals for hiring minority- and women-owned businesses. The law firm Hodgson Russ alleged in a civil complaint that Boutross pushed out JRT in a bid to increase her commissions.
The suit alleges that at the time C&W designated Boutross to handle the DCAS account at Hamilton’s request, she was a specialist in retail leasing and “had virtually no experience with government office leases (an area of expertise distinct from retail leasing).”
JRT alleged that Boutross “repeatedly bragged to JRT that she already knew she would be appointed as Account Manager on the DCAS account” before the appointment, and then asked JRT “endless questions about DCAS and the account” after she landed the assignment.
When JRT filed preliminary court papers last month, a spokesperson for Cushman & Wakefield told The Real Deal in a statement:“If and when a complaint is filed, we will review and respond accordingly.”
