It was the personal touch that won over Jay Luchs when Antonio Villaraigosa a Democrat making his second run for California governor called to talk about real estate. I respect him for picking up the phone and calling me to talk business personally and it made me interested in supporting him, Luchs, executive vice chairman at Newmark in Los Angeles, said via email. Plus there's the former Los Angeles mayor's stance on Measure ULA, a property tax which is criticized by developers in California for increasing the cost of and slowing the pace of development, despite being intended to fund housing solutions.
As a company that takes great pride in being L.A. based, we no longer build within the city of Los Angeles because of the unpredictability, the cost of doing it [and] the multiple layers of bureaucracy you have to go through for approvals, Caruso said on stage. And I made that decision long before I ever ran for office [in 2022].