Mayor Adams and the Brooklyn apartment, he just can’t stop

As Eric Adams ran for mayor of New York City, questions arose about inconsistencies surrounding a Brooklyn apartment he appeared to own, even though he said he had turned it over to his ex-girlfriend.

The explanation was simple, Mr. Adams explained. His ex-girlfriend failed to submit the proper paperwork to confirm the deal.

After Mr. Adams was elected, it turned out that he still owned half of that apartment. He then blamed his accountant for the error, suggesting that the accountant may have been distracted because he had recently become homeless. The mayor said the handover to his ex-partner was “ongoing.”

But on Wednesday it became clear that Mr. Adams still owns that one-bedroom apartment in Crown Heights, according to financial disclosures released by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.

A spokesman for the mayor said the process that began last June is still ongoing.

“Having previously learned that the transfer fell through, the mayor initiated the process to transfer the property last year, but for tax-related purposes it is currently delayed and the mayor has completed his COIB paperwork to reflect that fact. to give. said the spokesman, Fabien Levy.

Mr. Adams’ ever-developing story of the humble Brooklyn apartment underscores his tendency to sometimes tell stories that reveal holes under scrutiny.

Mr. Adams told state lawmakers last year that he had been convicted of a felony when he had not. In an opening speech in 2019, he took a pastor’s story about a dog polluting his yard and made it his own. In recent weeks, Mr. Adams inaccurately suggested that migrants occupied nearly half of the city’s hotel rooms and that fentanyl was a commonplace ingredient in edible cannabis products.

And now, contrary to his years of claiming otherwise, documents show that Mr. Adams still owns the apartment he bought in 1988 with his then-partner, Sylvia Cowan, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday morning.

In March, a neighbor noticed an Emblem Health tax form addressed to Eric Adams in the common mail room of the Crown Heights building. Also in March, the neighbor saw mail to the mayor from American Express, to which someone had added a note that read “LOL.” The neighbor noted another piece of mail on Tuesday evening.

The Crown Heights apartment complements the multifamily home he owns in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, and the condominium he co-owns in Fort Lee, NJ, with Tracey Collins, whom he has described as his partner. Mrs. Cowan, his former partner, also bought an apartment in that Fort Lee building, just down from Mr. Adams’s.

During Mr. Adams’ campaign for mayor in 2021, his co-ownership of the one-bedroom apartment in Crown Heights became a problem, as he left it off the disclosure forms required by the state and city of elected officials.

At the time, Mr Adams said he was right to leave out the ownership interest, having transferred that interest to Ms Cowan in 2007. not notarized and not signed by Mrs. Cowan.

He blamed Mrs. Cowan for not properly recording the transfer.

When it emerged last year that Mr. Adams still owned the apartment, he blamed his former accountant for the misunderstanding.

“However, upon getting a new accountant, the mayor realized that all the proper paperwork had not been completed in the past and that no new deed had been filed by the property’s other owner,” said Mr. Levi last year. “That process is now underway.”