A deputy commissioner and longtime associate of Mayor Eric Adams forced a real estate brokerage the city relies on to help secure leases to hire a friend he identified as “my broker,” new court papers allege.

Jesse Hamilton, deputy commissioner for real estate services at the Department of Citywide istrative Services (DCAS), told Cushman & Wakefield, the brokerage house DCAS uses, that the firm would be pushed out if they didn’t assign his friend, Diana Boutross, to the DCAS , the papers charge.

Cushman and Boutross get paid commissions by landlords to secure lease deals for city offices in private buildings.

The court filing identifies Boutross as a close associate of Hamilton and Ingrid Lewis-Martin, another longtime Adams insider who resigned her position as his chief advisor shortly before she was indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney on corruption charges in December.

Hamilton, Lewis-Martin and Boutross all vacationed together in Japan in September. When they returned, a representative of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg took their cell phones as they exited the gate at JFK International Airport. A representative of the Manhattan U.S. attorney also served a subpoena to Lewis-Martin requesting her to appear before a sitting federal grand jury.

Neither Hamilton, Lewis-Martin nor Boutross have explained who paid for what on the Japan trip.

The revelations appear in an amended civil complaint filed by JRT Realty Group, a woman-owned brokerage Cushman had long relied on to help out in lease deals. JRT contends it was pushed out to make way for Boutross, a maneuver they contend boosted her commission on the lucrative DCAS deals.

JRT’s attorney, Carmine Castellano, filed the amended complaint late Wednesday, describing a lunch meeting attended by Hamilton, Boutross and two Cushman & Wakefield executives, to discuss who Cushman would appoint to the DCAS because the longtime manager was retiring. Boutross, the lawsuit alleged, set up the meeting.

During the meeting, Hamilton pointed to Boutross and said, “She is my broker.”

The lawsuit alleges JRT agents later met with Boutross at her request to provide her with “extensive information” on their DCAS business. Boutross, the suit charges, “asked endless questions about DCAS and the .” JRT warned Boutross that DCAS leases are “extremely complicated” during one of these meetings, to which Boutross allegedly responded, “Don’t worry. I have a rabbi,” according to the suit.

In August 2023, Cushman assigned the DCAS to Boutross, allegedly infuriating other Cushman brokers with experience handling government and office leasing. Boutross, the suit states, previously handled only retail leases and had zero experience on municipal leases.

The suit states that in her role as the DCAS manager for Cushman, Boutross “is in line to receive substantial commissions.” The DCAS lease portfolio consists of 22 million square feet of private sector space occupied by city agencies across the five boroughs.

In response to JRT’s original complaint, Cushman & Wakefield has denied wrongdoing, claiming instead that DCAS changed the rules of its efforts to promote minority- and women-owned businesses. DCAS prior rule encouraged contractors to sub out 30% of their contracts to either minority-owned or women-owned vendors, while the updated policy required only 10% each to Black-owned, Hispanic-owned and women-owned businesses.

DCAS did not respond an inquiry from THE CITY. A spokesperson for Cushman said JRT’s amended complaint “further perpetuates JRT’s inaccurate claims. We believe they are using these filings as a way to achieve other commercial objectives. We have already filed a motion to dismiss and will hold them to for any claims made in bad faith.”

Hamilton’s handling of city leases has already been the subject of an inquiry by City Council member Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn), who last year raised questions about Hamilton steering a lease for city office space at 14 Wall St. to a billionaire donor to Mayor Adams’ legal defense fund. 
That deal, which is now on pause, is the subject of an ongoing probe by the city Department of Investigation.