New York City's proposed pied-à-terre tax targets billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Ken Griffin with luxury second homes.
Jeff Bezos would be among the many billionaires impacted by a proposed pied-à-terre tax backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.Jamie McCarthy/WireImage; Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesNew York officials have proposed a pied-à-terre tax on non-primary homes worth over $5 million.Mayor Zohran Mamdani namechecked billionaire Ken Griffin when he announced the levy.Griffin would be one of many big-name billionaires affected, from Donald Trump to Jeff Bezos.New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani introduced a new pied-à-terre tax in a video on Wednesday, standing in front of a limestone tower on Central Park South and calling out one of its residents, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, by name.Griffin is far from the only billionaire who would shoulder such a tax, which Mamdani and New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed earlier this week.The levy on non-primary homes worth more than $5 million would apply to those who live abroad, in other states, and elsewhere in New York state, as well as to investment properties, and would be in addition to current property taxes.The state has not said publicly how it would determine a residence's value, whether a home is a primary residence, or how much homeowners would pay.
City Hall did not respond to questions about those details. While market value determines the assessed value for one to three-family homes in New York City, condos and co-ops — the vast majority of New York apartments — are assessed by a more complex formula.The tax, part of Hochul's state budget proposal, would generate an estimated $500 million a year, according to Hochul's and Mamdani's offices.In the announcement, Mamdani's office mentioned Griffin, who spent $238 million on a Midtown penthouse in 2019, and Russian auto dealer Alexander Varshavsky, who bought a Columbus Circle apartment for $20.5 million in cash."This pied-à-terre tax is specifically designed for the richest of the rich," Mamdani said in the video.Within 24 hours, big-name billionaires and businesspeople attacked the proposal, with critics arguing it could drive investment out of the city."Mamdani likes the tag line 'Tax the rich.'
Unfortunately, his policies will harm the constituencies he is supposedly trying to help," Bill Ackman wrote on X.The new tax would apply to 13,000 properties, Hochul's office estimated, and several of the individuals behind those apartments could be hard to identify, having purchased their homes through trusts or LLCs.Here are eight prominent figures from finance, entertainment, and real estate who would likely be affected by the proposed policy. Their representatives declined or did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Jeff BezosOver the course of two years, Miami-resident Jeff Bezos purchased five apartments in a building near Madison Park.Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for America Business ForumIn 2023, Bezos very publicly decamped to Miami, purchasing several properties on the private island of Indian Creek and leaving at least some of his Seattle homes behind.He's held onto his New York real estate empire.
From 2019 to 2021, he purchased five apartments inside 212 Fifth Avenue, a condo building in Manhattan's Nomad, spending more than $100 million. He had previously purchased four apartments at 25 Central Park West with his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott Bezos, though it's unclear who retained ownership of them in the divorce.Bezos, the world's third-richest person with a net worth of $269 billion according to Bloomberg, also owns homes in Beverly Hills, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Western Texas, and Hawaii.Jay-Z and BeyoncéJay-Z and Beyoncé have owned their Tribeca loft for decades.Edward Berthelot/Getty ImagesJay-Z and Beyoncé, famously from Brooklyn and Houston, respectively, have called California — where they own a Bel-Air mansion and a record-breaking Malibu estate — home for about a decade.The pair, worth a combined $3.8 billion, according to Forbes, kept their Tribeca loft, where they married in 2008.
The apartment has no doubt ballooned in value since Jay-Z purchased it for $6.85 million more than two decades ago.Steve CohenSteve Cohen's West Village mansion took years to build and sits on multiple lots.Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty ImagesWhile hedge fund titan Cohen primarily lives on an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, known as 30 Crown, he also owns another mansion 40 miles south. His 30,000-square-foot home in the West Village, which took years to construct, sits on multiple lots that Cohen purchased for more than $60 million in total in 2012.Worth $17.4 billion, according to Bloomberg, Cohen has built a portfolio that includes an estate in East Hampton and a home in Delray Beach, Florida.Michael DellMichael Dell primarily lives in Austin, though he purchased a record-setting apartment on Billionaires' Row in New York.SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty ImagesDell, the Texas-based founder of Dell Technologies, broke city records when he purchased a $100 million penthouse in 2014.His 11,000-squa