Former Goldman Sachs executive quits post at EDC

 

Commercial Observer

James Patchett, who has led the New York City Economic Development Corporation for the past four years, plans to step down early next month, the mayor’s office announced Wednesday.

Patchett took over as EDC president and chief executive after three years as chief of staff to Alicia Glen, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s former deputy mayor of housing and economic development. He followed her to public life after working under her as a vice president at Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group for seven years.

The press release from the mayor’s office indicated that Patchett is leaving city government to “pursue opportunities in the private sector.” Glen, his former boss, left to launch her own real estate development firm.

Patchett worked on a broad array of real estate projects during his tenure at EDC, including the approval of the controversial redevelopment of the Bedford Union Armory in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; the fraught development of a tech hub and office building on Union Square; and construction of a 700-unit affordable housing project on the site of the former Spofford Juvenile Detention Center in the South Bronx. 

Let's not also forget his roles in the backroom deal for the Amazon HQ2 hoax, the funding of countless studies for the BQX and the aquatic boondoggle NYC Ferry and other crass overdevelopment proposals. Good riddance, Pat.

Former de Blasio aide was paid to bolster quasi city government office Economic Development Corporation and its president after Amazon bailed from deal

THE CITY

Just a dozen days after Amazon announced this winter that it would pull out of plans for a Queens headquarters in the face of raucous opposition, the local authority that had helped forge the deal sought help from a familiar face, emails obtained by THE CITY show.

Andrea Hagelgans, the de Blasio admininistration’s former communications chief, got a message from the NYC Economic Development Corporation chief of staff James Katz on Feb. 26 requesting a phone call about a “potential engagement.”

That engagement — cemented in April at $80,000 for four months’ work — was a reputational rescue led by Hagelgans at the public relations firm Edelman, which she’d joined in 2018 after leaving her City Hall job.

Her team signed up to lead a course correction in Amazon’s aftermath, the correspondence shows. It would enhance EDC’s existing press operation, rehabilitate the corporation’s wounded image and win future land-use fights against community and political opponents.

EDC spokeswoman Stephanie Báez characterized the hiring of Edelman as nothing out of the ordinary. “EDC carries out dozens of complicated projects that require time and attention,” she said. 

“As in the past, we’ve taken the straightforward step of engaging outside help to assist with capacity and strategic support.”

She did not answer questions about total billing, whether the contract would be extended or renewed or if the work was ongoing.

Edelman declined to comment.

 The Edelman proposal from March, released to THE CITY under a Freedom of Information request, describes EDC’s “most urgent needs” as “capacity building and the preparations needed to weather and win critical land use fights.”

“We have designed a program that we believe meets your immediate needs while propelling NYCEDC forward as you work to shape the future of NYC for its residents,” Hagelgans wrote in an email to Katz.

The proposal also aimed to elevate EDC President James Patchett in the public eye, “building executive visibility.”

 The objectives included positioning Patchett “as a fierce advocate for business growth and development,” and creating a “playbook outlining a strong defense to political or community-related attacks surrounding high-profile land use fights and other reputation risks.”

The strategy involved a “systematic, rapid-response approach to effectively navigate political and community-related opposition that could slow or stall progress” on such deals.