NYC mayor Mamdani’s policies spark business exodus and boomerang push

New York’s political and financial leaders have launched efforts to combat Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s policies that they say have caused many billionaires to look elsewhere for their professional homes.

After Mamdani named Ken Griffin, CEO and owner of Citadel LLC, in an advertisement for a new tax on the city’s second homes, Griffin publicly chastised him as “creepy.”

Citadel’s chief operating officer later indicated in a letter to employees that the company might not move forward with plans to pursue a $6 billion renovation of a new Midtown Manhattan skyscraper.

“What the mayor of New York has made clear to my partners…and primarily to my New York partners…is that we need to redouble our efforts in Miami, because we want to be in a state that embraces business, that embraces education, that embraces personal freedom, and that gives people the opportunity to live the American dream,” Griffin said at the Milken Institute Global Conference in New York on Tuesday.

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Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin has described New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “tax the rich” video targeting him as a “scary and weird” political ad. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Today, local business leaders are spending time and money on a campaign in hopes of keeping their businesses in the Big Apple.

Andrew Murstein, founder of Medallion Financial Corp., launched Operation Boomerang in an effort to lure defectors to New York.

Murstein has pledged $1 million of his own money to the effort, which will allow him to send hot dogs, bagels and Katz’s Deli from New York to businesses that have fled to Florida, he told the New York Post.

“The last 10 years with mayors and governors, these things pass, and they should continue for the long term,” he told the Post. “I’m trying to convince them not to abandon ship. No matter what.”

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Murstein also added that he was going to leverage his initial campaign contribution to raise more money, which he estimated would bring the project between $20 million and $30 million, according to the Post.

Former Mayor Eric Adams also lent his voice to the re-appeal efforts, imploring Griffin to “hold on,” in an article on X.

Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams publicly supported Citadel CEO Ken Griffin amid his tax battle with current Mayor Zohran Mamdani. (Getty Images/AP Images)

Mamdani’s attacks on the rich have even frightened his own employees, according to the Post’s sources.

“The mayor’s office is feeling pressure on this and is looking for ways to change the conversation about business,” an anonymous local business leader reportedly told the Post.

“They are in trouble because he is hearing that all the business leaders are now looking for exit strategies and Mamdani needs money and needs to keep his base happy,” the source reportedly continued.

The Citadel founder is clashing with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani over taxes targeting the ultra-rich and rising crime, reigniting the same tensions that drove him to pull his company and his billions out of Chicago. (Spencer Platt/Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg/Getty Images / Getty Images)

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“This could be an inflection point because New York is already a welfare state propped up by very few people at the top who can leave,” the source concluded, according to the Post.