Mayor Adams still lists himself as co-owner of Brooklyn apartment he claimed he gifted to ‘good friend’
Mayor Adams’ latest financial disclosure reveals he still co-owns a one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment he claimed during the 2021 campaign to have gifted to a “good friend” — adding more intrigue to questions swirling around his real estate holdings.
The mandatory annual disclosure, released Wednesday by the Conflicts of Interest Board, shows Adams continues to hold a 50% stake in the first-floor co-op apartment in Prospect Heights, which is valued at between $250,000 and $500,000.
The apartment started attracting scrutiny in June 2021, when the news outlet The City reported that Adams had failed for years in official forms to disclose his co-ownership of it with Sylvia Cowan, a woman he has described as a “good friend.” At first, Adams denied the report and insisted he had transferred his co-op shares to Cowan over a decade ago.
But in his first mayoral financial disclosure in June 2022, Adams admitted he was still a co-owner of the unit. At the time, Adams spokesman Fabien Levy claimed the mayor’s shares hadn’t “fully transferred” to Cowan yet, and blamed the delay in part on Clarence Harley, the mayor’s former accountant who he claimed had filed incorrect paperwork.
On Wednesday, Levy said the transfer still hasn’t gone through due to “tax-related” reasons.
“After previously learning that the transfer did not go through, the mayor initiated the process last year to transfer the property, but for tax-related purposes, it is currently being delayed, and the mayor has filled out his COIB paperwork to reflect that fact,” Levy said, using an acronym for the Conflicts of Interest Board.
Levy did not elaborate on the nature of the “tax-related purposes.”
The Prospect Heights apartment isn’t the only real estate owned by Adams that has attracted scrutiny.
During the 2021 campaign, questions swirled over whether Adams lived at a Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment he was registered at, prompting him to bring reporters on an extraordinary tour of the home. Some of Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign rivals speculated he actually lived full-time in a Fort Lee, N.J., co-op he co-owns with his girlfriend, Tracey Collins — a claim the mayor has firmly denied.
Beyond the Prospect Heights apartment, the mayor’s latest financial disclosure confirms he still owns the Fort Lee co-op with Collins. The apartment is valued at between $250,000 and $500,000, the form shows.
