Dive Brief:

• Newly elected New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio has good ties with the real estate community and collected campaign money from it, and he understands that he will need to give developers incentives to build if he wants to achieve his non-building policy goals.
• DeBlasio wants mandatory "inclusionary zoning" – affordable housing units included in projects – and developers will need higher-density construction to make it work.
• DeBlasio also wants pre-kindergarten programs, and city unions want raises they have not had in four years, and the new mayor has said that development pays for a progressive agenda.

Dive Insight:

Much of this analysis by Josh Barrow in Business Insider is based on a talk DeBlasio gave at New York University during the summer. "If we aren’t doing everything possible as a city government to spur on development, even if valid compromises are included, we risk nothing getting built at all, and that is the worst possible outcome," DeBlasio said. If Barrow is correct, the new administration may make many friends in the construction industry.