NYC Mayor Adams gives ex-girlfriend his share in Brooklyn apartment that stirred controversy

Chris Sommerfeldt and Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on Apr 29, 2025

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NEW YORK — New York Mayor Eric Adams late last year gave an ex-girlfriend his stake in a Brooklyn apartment they’ve co-owned together for decades, capping off years of confusion about the unit that began swirling during his 2021 run for City Hall.

Adams and the ex, onetime professional bodybuilder Sylvia Cowan, bought the one-bedroom co-op unit on Prospect Place in Crown Heights in 1988.

The apartment attracted scrutiny during the 2021 mayoral race after it emerged Adams had failed for years to report his ownership stake on mandatory financial disclosure forms. At the time, Adams said he hadn’t reported the unit because he had years earlier gifted his 50% stake to Cowan and blamed a delay in the transfer on his accountant, who he alleged had become homeless.

Upon taking office, Adams changed his tune, saying in October 2023 he had decided to keep his share as the apartment made for a “great investment” in an area he had as mayor made “safe.”

But Adams finally transferred his share in the co-op to Cowan on Dec. 17, 2024, new property records reviewed by the New York Daily News reveal. According to his previous personal financial disclosures, the unit is worth between $250,000 and $500,000. Adams gave Cowan his share for free, meaning she alone now owns the unit, the property records show.

Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak confirmed Tuesday the mayor no longer owns the apartment, but wouldn’t say what went into his decision to finally offload his share.

Cowan didn’t return requests for comment.

The inconsistencies around the Crown Heights apartment became part of a larger controversy about Adams’ real estate holdings during the 2021 campaign as questions emerged over whether he lived in a Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment where he was registered.

Adams, who maintained he lived full-time at the Bed-Stuy apartment, brought reporters on an extraordinary tour of the unit after some of his 2021 mayoral race rivals questioned whether he actually lived in a Fort Lee, New Jersey, condo he co-owns with his current girlfriend, ex-Department of Education official Tracey Collins.

It’s unclear over what period Adams and Cowan dated, but he has in recent years described her as a “good friend.”

In addition to the Crown Heights unit, Cowan owns an apartment in the same Fort Lee building where Adams and Collins have their condo. Cowan’s apartment in that building is one floor underneath Adams’ unit. News outlet The City reported in 2021 that she bought it after Adams advised her to purchase real estate in Fort Lee.

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