Zohran Mamdani is calling out billionaires by name — flagging Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and his $238 million mega penthouse he rarely visits

The measure is projected to generate $500 million in annual revenue, NBC New York reports (3), and could affect as many as 13,000 properties across the five boroughs.

'If you can afford a $5 million second home … you can afford to contribute'

To drive the point home, Mamdani named names. In the official announcement, his office flagged (2) Citadel CEO Ken Griffin's $238 million, 24,000-square-foot penthouse at 220 Central Park South — at the time of closing in 2019, CNN Business reported (4), the most expensive home ever sold in the U.S. — as an example of exactly the kind of property the tax is designed to hit.

Griffin (5), who relocated Citadel's headquarters from Chicago to Miami in 2022 and has assembled a sprawling property portfolio across Saint-Tropez, London, Hawaii, the Hamptons and beyond, reportedly (6) picked up the Midtown property as, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, "a place to stay when he's in town."

That framing is central to Mamdani's argument. "When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today, we're taxing the rich," Mamdani said in his video announcement (7). "This pied-à-terre tax is specifically designed for the richest of the rich — those who store their wealth in New York City real estate, but who don't actually live here."

Hochul echoed (8) the sentiment at a press conference: "They're part of our skyline, but those people are not part of our city," she said of vacant luxury units. "If you can afford a $5 million second home that sits empty most of the year, you can afford to contribute like every other New Yorker," she added (2).

What the tax means and why it matters now

The pied-à-terre concept isn't new to Albany. Similar proposals (9) surfaced in 2014 and again in 2019, but were ultimately blocked or traded off (10) by the real estate industry.

This time, the political dynamics are different. The measure arrived as a late surprise in ongoing state budget negotiations, giving opponents little runway to mount a campaign against it, according to (10) The Real Deal.

The backdrop is a city under genuine financial pressure. Mamdani inherited (11) a $5.3 billion budget gap on day one, and with the city budget due May 1 (12), the revenue clock is ticking. The pied-à-terre tax represents a politically elegant solution: it raises meaningful money without touching income taxes or property levies on ordinary New Yorkers.

For everyday residents, it's a significant move. New York City's housing affordability crisis (13) has been years in the making. The mayor's office framed (2) the tax as a direct response to the practice of using Manhattan real estate as "a vehicle for wealth storage" — trophy assets that sit largely empty while working and middle-class New Yorkers get squeezed out of the market.

The pushback

Not everyone is cheering. Real Estate Board of New York president, Jim Whelan, warned (9) the tax would "eliminate thousands of construction jobs, lower property values and raise costs for New Yorkers," instead of boosting expected revenue.