Look around New York – look up, and look underground too. The city is booming with huge transportation construction projects, from the airports to the Second Avenue subway, to rebuilds of Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
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“I don’t know that the world realizes it – we are living through some of the largest infrastructure investments that this city has ever seen,” said New York Building Congress President and CEO Carlo Scissura.
And that’s great news for one of the great connectors of New York politics, who represents the interests of everyone who wants to build, baby, build. City & State caught up with Scissura to talk about whether “tax the rich” is chilling growth, how to get developers to build more than 99 units and who he wants to see win in June. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
City & State is recognizing Trailblazers in Construction. What role does the New York Building Congress play in the industry?
We represent the entirety of the industry. I always say, if you’re putting up a building, every piece of that puzzle is a member of the Building Congress. From architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, attorneys, lobbyists, owners, developers, unions, labor – we are the entity that brings the entire industry together as one. There’s no one else like that anywhere in the country that really has this type of pull, this type of organizational structure, and this type of place where people can sit at a table, compete, disagree on things, and walk out, shake hands and be good friends. And that’s the beauty of this organization.
There has to be so many disputes within your membership. What can you all agree on?
We agree that we want to continue to build New York. We agree that we want really strong job growth and economic development. We agree that we want a lot of money from Washington, Albany and the city. We agree that it takes partnerships, joint ventures. That labor still plays a role in building New York.
We put out a report. This year and next year will be among the highest years of construction spending in the history of New York. We also talked about residential conversions of old office buildings, really moving forward greatly. We opined that new Class A office construction is going to be needed. And, by the way, some of my members said to me, “Carlo, you’re crazy.” And I said, the demand is there. And now when you look at it, the amount of potential Class A new office constructions is hitting eight to 10 massive developments over the next five to 10 years.
There’s a lot of pushback from some parts of the business community to the democratic socialist mayor, and divesting from the city because of that. Are you with them, or arguing against that?
I mean, look, JPMorgan Chase built their world headquarters on Park Avenue. Citadel will still build on Park Avenue. Rudin is building a massive building on Madison. SL Green opened during the pandemic one of the most incredible office buildings in America (One Vanderbilt). And RXR is planning a massive construction by Grand Central. All of this spurred by a rezoning for Midtown and transit improvements.
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And are you concerned about Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tax policies affecting this?
Look, I think the train rolls along, no matter what. We prefer no new tax increases, obviously. But I think if you’re going to do the tax increases – and they’re done right – the folks, at least in my industry, say let’s make sure that it doesn’t stop construction. Let’s make sure that we have a livable city. Let’s make sure that we have a safe city, and a city where building and construction, tied into the men and women of labor, continues to grow.
There’s discussion of union pay requirements holding back residential developers from building more than 99 units. Where do you stand on that?
So 485-x needs to be fixed. We know that. So the top of our agenda next January will be focusing on: How do we fix it to stop 99-unit buildings only? What do we do that makes it better? In addition to everything else we do – we’ve got a robust policy agenda – we now have an office in Albany, as of last January. We are going to expand to an office in (Washington,) D.C., in the next year or two. At the end of the day, it’s about bringing the most money we can into New York.
Abundance was the buzzword of 2025.
Yes. I haven’t finished the book yet.
Real estate was public enemy No. 1 among Democrats not too long ago. Have you felt that change?
Yeah, because five years ago nobody was talking about housing. People didn’t want to see housing built. Now everyone talks about housing, left, right and center. It doesn’t matter what your political ideology is. Everybody understands you got to build housing.
What keeps you up at night?
I just worry about money. We have to ensure that the federal government continues to invest in cities and mass transit and infrastructure.
Of course, I worry that we have great demand for these new buildings. I want to make sure that the industries that will take space in the buildings are happy here. Our members build the most innovative, dynamic, exciting buildings for you to work in. Now we just have to make sure that people stay here.
The primaries are coming up, are there any races you’re watching?
We obviously don’t endorse as an organization. But Congressman (Adriano) Espaillat has been an incredible force in getting money for transit infrastructure in New York. And his voice really is what pushed the Second Avenue subway funding over the finish line. And there’s still a lot of phases there for the people of Harlem, so he would be an important voice to keep a Congress.
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