Real estate billionaire Barry Sternlicht has issued a stark warning about the New York city’s future under mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, suggesting that his company may relocate operations due to what he described as a looming crisis in development costs and public safety.

Sternlicht, the CEO of Starwood Capital Group, criticised New York’s powerful trade unions for driving up the costs of construction and management, arguing that the problem would worsen under Mamdani’s progressive agenda.

“Every project in New York has to go union, and it’s super expensive,” he told CNBC. “It leads to extremely expensive housing.”

Following his election victory, Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist and the city’s first Muslim and Indian-origin mayor-elect, pledged to implement sweeping social programmes.

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