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Mayor Jon Mitchell celebrated the opening of another new housing development in downtown New Bedford on April 1.
At a joyful ribbon-cutting for Flats at 8th, a 52-unit, mixed-income apartment building on Union Street, he congratulated developer Duane Jackson. New Bedford needs more housing, Mitchell said, and building it here isn’t easy. Jackson had to raise tens of millions of dollars to finish the project, including $3 million from the city.
“He could have walked away, but he just stuck with it,” Mitchell said from a podium in the building’s ground-floor retail space. “I can’t thank you enough, Duane.”
Mitchell’s administration has supported a surge of new construction in its fight against skyrocketing housing costs. Big projects are filling in empty lots on Union Street and a vacant nursing home in the North End.
As developers have provided badly needed housing for the city, they have also provided the mayor’s campaign with more funding. Jackson donated $1,000 in both of the last two years. Contributions from people working in real estate and development have made up a growing share of donations to Mitchell’s campaign in recent months.
Those who self-identified as developers, contractors, architects, realtors, property managers, and other related jobs have given nearly $36,000 to the mayor’s campaign since November, according to a New Bedford Light analysis of public campaign data. They contributed 41% of the money the mayor’s campaign received in the past six months.
The donations contributed to Mitchell’s biggest fundraising burst in a decade — he has raised $87,550 in the last six months, more than in any other six-month period since 2015.
The mayor now has $409,708 cash on hand, the most he has ever had in his campaign account. He is up for reelection in fall 2027.
Mitchell has tried to position New Bedford as developer-friendly in the last few years, supporting more construction to build the city out of its intense housing shortage. His administration gave millions of dollars in pandemic relief grants to income-restricted housing projects, introduced a series of laws to relax the city’s zoning code, and vetoed a ballot question on rent control that developers opposed.
The mayor’s supporters in the real estate and development industries say they welcome Mitchell’s support for more affordable housing.
“What impressed me about Mayor Mitchell is he’s been someone who’s willing to listen,” said Andy Burnes, president and CEO of HallKeen Management, which manages three developments in New Bedford, including dozens of subsidized units.
Burnes, who gave $500 to Mitchell’s campaign in December, said he appreciates that the mayor has “progressed over time in his thinking” on income-restricted housing. After hearing from developers, Mitchell has become a vocal supporter of it, even as other mayors try to keep it out of their cities, he said.
Jason Couto gave $1,000 to the campaign in December. He’s president of Couto Construction, the firm behind a project that will turn an Acushnet Avenue nursing home into 65 apartments. Couto said he was invited last year to participate in roundtables with city permitting officials to give feedback on ways the city could improve the permitting process.
“The fact that they were asking for non-biased feedback and trying to get insights on that was a step in the right direction,” he said.
Developers trying to build housing in New Bedford face a huge gap between the high cost of construction and the money they’re likely to recoup through rents, research has found. That means they often need to cobble together various government subsidies that require some units to be set aside for people with low or moderate incomes.
Mitchell and officials in his administration have said the city needs more of all kinds of housing, including subsidized units and apartments that charge market-rate rents. The administration has called on surrounding towns to provide more affordable housing, arguing that it’s unhealthy for the local economy to concentrate most of the region’s low-income housing in one small area.
Jackson, the Flats at 8th developer, said in an interview that he’s told the mayor that the city’s housing market can’t support market-rate construction, and he thinks the message got through.
But Mitchell’s efforts to develop New Bedford’s economy with commuter rail service and offshore wind were also front-of-mind for the developer when he decided to contribute to the mayor’s campaign. The mayor is “a good man,” Jackson said.
“Its not about business,” he said. “It’s about his vision for the city.”
In a short interview as he walked out of the ribbon-cutting, Mitchell said he had no reaction to The Light’s data findings. He said he also receives support from other major industries in the city, including fishing and offshore wind.
“There’s no pattern there,” he said.
In response to builders’ comments that Mitchell had become more supportive of affordable housing after listening to the development community, the mayor said city support for housing is considered on a “project-by-project basis.”
He said there was no reason for the increase in his political fundraising.
Where the money is coming from
Mitchell has regularly received contributions from people listing employers in real estate and construction since he first ran for mayor in 2011. But the amount of money coming from them has increased recently, and they now make up a greater share of Mitchell’s fundraising, The Light’s analysis of fundraising data found.
In the last six months, 41% of money flowing into the mayor’s campaign came from these donors. That’s a significant increase from the four years leading up to that stretch, when just 16% of contributions came from professionals in these industries.
Most of the money is coming from out of town. Just five of the 50 real estate and development professionals who have given to the mayor in the last year are New Bedford residents. More than a dozen live in South Coast towns such as Swansea, Westport, and Dartmouth. Most have addresses elsewhere in Massachusetts, including eight from Boston. Out-of-state donors include four people who live in Rhode Island and two in Florida.
In some cases, multiple people from the same company made large contributions to Mitchell’s campaign. In March, one deposit report shows 11 employees of D.F. Pray Construction contributed a total of $8,150, including 10 on the same day, in sums ranging from $250 to $1,000. The group included executives, a lawyer, an accountant, and an office manager.
D.F. Pray has worked on multiple publicly funded projects in New Bedford, including the redevelopment of 117 Union Street, “Eighteen and Union,” and the Keystone site into new apartments.
Scott Pray, the company’s president, also contributed $1,000 in December. He declined to comment on the donations at Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony and said The Light’s inquiry had been forwarded to the company’s legal department.
Employees of Cruz Companies, a Boston-based developer, have given the mayor $4,000 since December. The company is in the early stages of building two affordable projects in New Bedford, and it’s interested in acquiring more properties from the city for redevelopment.
John Cruz III, president and CEO of the company, said he makes contributions to leaders who make it easier to build affordable housing. Public data shows he has given $8,000 to Massachusetts politicians in the last year, including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
“If the mayor is trying to support housing, that’s a reason to support him or her,” he said.
Development-related professionals tend to make bigger donations than other donors to Mitchell. The average amount of a donation to his campaign in the last five years was $336, but for real estate and development donors it was $624.
In the last two years, people affiliated with development-related industries have made up a greater share of top-dollar donors, giving the maximum $1,000 an individual is allowed to give to a single candidate in a single year. Since 2024, one of every three of the mayor’s top-dollar donors has worked in the sector.
Mitchell has spent very little from his campaign account in the last year. Aside from $5,390 he paid to the Wamsutta Club for an event in December, his largest expense has been $1,768 in processing fees to collect donations over the past year.
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org
More stories by Grace Ferguson
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Real Estate developers are interested in one thing, and one thing only! It is NOT to promote the quality of life for existing residents! It is NOT the creation of attractive buildings that are sufficient to provide the occupants with living space, parking and price affordability to New Bedford. Just step back and look what’s happened to fringe areas that have recently been developed. Especially in the northern! Houses are so close that privacy doesn’t exist. The streets are so narrow that emergency vehicles can’t pass. And who allowed this? The, appointed by the Mayor, zoning board members who have no experience and no skills in site engineering!
Developers have a difficult job,no doubt , but the public money that is being given w no recoup as the project is completed make no sense.
At tge very least the City should recover those funds when the projects y some point is sold or refinanced.
It’s all being done for FAVORS! Not fair to law abiding residents as yourself. Many say oh crap another Panagakos property. I say yeah, I went to school with him and he is doing awesome! Classmate 1979. Keep doing what you’re doing. Maybe someday, somehow, things will get easier!
There are questions regarding these contributions from so many developers. I am also concerned at one particular general contractor where “multiple” employees made political contributions to the Mayor. This is a red flag. I understand the need for development but also demand transparency by any public official to ensure no conflict of interest. When many developers make contributions such as this then future development may become murky, so who gets the prize. As for the Mayor, I’ve been neutral, but based on this article I have to ask the question that is begged. I hope our pubic officials understand that this is all public record. Last, I wonder how the City funded the project, Flats at 8th St. This article states that the developer had to raise tens of millions of dollars to finish the project including 3 million from the city. This also raises a few more questions.
Please beware of Boston area real estate developers and the hold of RE interests on our statehouse.
Renter abusive practices that prevail to the north include management companies that exist only to secure renters and collect rent, while providing poor quality housing that features dirty wall to wall carpeting, stair railings that fail if you put your weight on them, leaking gas from stoves and pipes, and rats everywhere. All in the highest rental market in the US. These units are dangerous, occupied by clueless students who breathe gas and don’t know to report it. The buildings lack any insulation. Since energy costs are paid by renters, landlords can’t bother to call in MassSave and insulate. $600 per month Eversource bills were paid by renters living at 48 to 54 degrees, this past Jan-Feb. The MA House of Representatives defunded MassSave, and did not address the major reason of energy unaffordability, gas price spiking .
The NB mayor would be wise to donate real estate and energy interest campaign financing to a worthy cause, like helping renters afford the cost of living in this area.
An incumbent does not need a war chest to get re-elected. Rather these donations bias toward awarding contracts and favourable exemptions, for a few personal $thousand donations.
Each session statewide renter-supportive laws die in committee or never reach a floor vote.
Check the state office of campaign and political finance (OCPF, https://www.ocpf.us/Filers) to see the occupations of a representatives’ donors.
Public office holders should not receive special interest money. MA local and state reps. don’t need a war chest. The do need to serve the public interest to get elected.
This is the way it has always ”worked” in Massachusetts.
Minimal monies donated, publicly, with massive “return on investment” for donors and their companies from public subsidies.
This is the “grease” of public subsidies for any and all Massachusetts projects.
It gets the job done.
Where might one find a list of donors to the Mayor’s campaign?
Howie does make some good points. Political contributions have been going on for years and sure it can seem to show the mayor has a large amount of support and boasts a big campaign chest, but the majority of these contributors and companies do not live in the city and are not interested in the quality of life of our city residents.
A political contribution from a developer, architectural firm, or general contractor is usually an ask for help with the approval process. Project delays cost dollars and reflect on their profit margins, so their concerns are to fast track their projects and do not care about over crowding, parking issues, and the safety of our neighborhoods.
I am sure the people hired and appointed to the city boards and commissions do their best, but when they get a call form the mayor’s office, they do what they’re told even if it’s not in the best interest of the residents. Another issue is residential development usually come with tax credits so they will not provide relief to our big bloated budget woes for years.
In the end this is a story of a Mayor raking in the cash, having a big war chest, and having big donor support. It does not represent the the true story of what has been going on in our city for the past ten years, the spending of money we don’t have, expanding city government, and raising taxes (as reported by the New Bedford Light a few days ago, the city has a $15.3 Million Dollar budget deficit this year).
After over decade of this administration, New Bedford needs new Leadership, and a new vision for the future.
At the rate things are going, Good Luck finding a parking spot in Downtown NB …………….. Glad i don’t live there anymore !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!