Kasirer supported Worker’s Justice Project, the nonprofit that organized Los Deliveristas Unidos, on a government relations and advocacy campaign to secure a historic long-fought victory to make New York City the first city in the country to implement a minimum pay rate for 65,000 app-based delivery workers. Kasirer led a robust advocacy strategy to mobilize elected support leading to the June 2023 enactment of a landmark law establishing a minimum pay rate for delivery workers in the gig economy. In response, however, delivery apps immediately moved to sue the City in an attempt to block implementation. In the months after, Kasirer team continued to provide hands-on support to Worker’s Justice Project to keep this issue a priority for City, State, and Federal elected officials, and equipped elected officials with the tools they need to convey their support and solidarity for this critical workforce as the lawsuits moved through the court system, leading to a hard-earned and long-overdue court victory for delivery workers in December of 2024 and an increase in workers’ wages soon after.

Kasirer successfully supported Kent Hospitality Group (formerly known as Saga Hospitality) in securing liquor licenses for their New York restaurant locations including SAGA, Crown Shy and Time and Tide, by establishing strong community relationships and securing support from key stakeholders. Through petitioning, organizing tours with members of Manhattan’s Community Boards 1 and 5, and obtaining letters of endorsement from key local stakeholders, Kasirer positioned Kent Hospitality for success for each of their applications.

Kasirer led the advocacy efforts for the office-to-residential conversion of 5 Times Square through Empire State Development’s General Project Plan process. Leveraging the Governor’s 2024 Affordable Housing for Commercial Conversions Program, the project will bring hundreds of affordable housing units to the heart of Times Square. Kasirer helped guide the development team through the approval process, engaged elected officials, and built strong support from stakeholders like the Times Square Alliance—ensuring the project’s momentum and success.

Kasirer navigated Clear Channel Airports through a strategy to secure the world’s largest airport advertising contract by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2020 for advertising rights at JFK, LaGuardia, Newark, and Stewart Airport.

Kasirer has successfully navigated the Public Theater through the incredibly complex approval process for the renovation of the Delacorte theater in Central Park, coordinating all the community outreach, navigating LPC approval process, obtaining permits for construction and continuing to manage community outreach and engagement up and till today.

We developed and implemented the strategic plan to navigate The Public through the LPC Certificate of Appropriateness application process. Our team helped them develop messaging to engage and obtain support of key elected and government officials as well as all Community Boards that cover Central Park. We needed to get approval from the landmark’s committees and full boards of Community Boards 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11 as well as the Central Park Conservancy, DCP and the Parks Department.

Kasirer assisted Rethink Food in securing a $87.8 million dollar contract by building strategic relationships between Rethink Food and the Mayoral Administration. Rethink Food will collaborate with its network of restaurant partners to provide culturally responsive meals to newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers at a Manhattan emergency relief shelter offering a solution to the growing demand for nutritious, culturally responsive food in response to the migrant crisis.

Kasirer led the government affairs team for Nordstrom’s East Coast Flagship store on East 57th Street in New York City, which opened in October 2019. Kasirer provided guidance to secure necessary approvals from the New York City Department of Buildings, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Protection, the MTA and the FDNY. Throughout this process, Kasirer strategically piloted Nordstrom through the Manhattan political landscape, developing and strengthening relationships with key elected officials and community leaders.

Kasirer brought together a team of developers to pitch a new residential tower for 5WTC. We coordinated and executed on the successful strategy to position our team to win the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s RFP to develop the land by building a diverse coalition around the opportunity to build affordable housing in one of the City’s wealthiest communities where affordable housing otherwise wouldn’t be built. We then navigated the client through the ESD General Project Plan (GPP) process and engaged the supporters we cultivated to publicly push back against community calls for a 100% affordable housing development in the district of the State Senate Housing Committee Chair. Kasirer successfully coordinated public push back against the 100% affordability narrative while negotiating with the Housing Chair privately and bridging the gap between the Governor’s office and Housing Chair Kavanagh. As a result, the GPP was approved along with an unprecedented $70 million subsidy to maximize creation of deeply affordable housing.

Kasirer orchestrated a comprehensive multi-year campaign that secured Verra Mobility the largest automated enforcement contract of its kind in the nation from the New York City Department of Transportation. After more than three years of intensive preparation including partnership development, oral testimonies, and site walkthroughs, Kasirer helped Verra Mobility win the competitive $250 million contract to expand red-light camera programs to 600 signalized intersections and manage comprehensive speed, bus lane, and weight enforcement cameras. We were successful because of our strategic coalition building across local organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, NYC Council committees covering education, public safety, technology, and transportation, and other stakeholders, and MWBEs.

More than six years in the making, Kasirer has been a longtime partner to the Gotham Organization in pursuit of land use approvals that would facilitate the creation of the Innovative Urban Village – a master re-imagining of a 10.5-acre site owned by the Christian Cultural Center in East New York, Brooklyn. As of July, 2025, construction is officially underway on this $270 million mixed-use development in East New York.

When completed, the Village will be home to nearly 2,000 families living in 100% rent-stabilized units surrounded by a mix of new recreational and educational facilities, a workforce training center, 24/7 childcare, open space and community-oriented retail establishments. Over the course of six years, Kasirer established connections between community stakeholders and Gotham, including the two local Council Members, two Brooklyn Borough Presidents, non-profit organizations, workforce development providers, other faith-based institutions, the local NYCHA tenants association and several chambers of commerce, among others. Alongside community support, Kasirer navigated the Department of City Planning and numerous agencies involved in the environmental review process, to ensure that the change in zoning from an R5 district to R7-2 with a commercial overlay conformed to city policies for equitable growth and that appropriate mitigations were implemented to knit the Village into the existing neighborhoods fabric. With Kasirer’s support, the Community Board voted nearly unanimously to approve the application, as did the Brooklyn Borough President, New York City Planning Commission and City Council, paving the way for the Village to begin construction upon securing financing.

Kasirer successfully positioned Special Olympics-New York, which currently serves more than 31,000 throughout the state, to forge a partnership with the City of New York’s public school system, leading to the introduction of new physical education and after-school sports programs for students with emotional challenges, autism, cognitive delays and other disabilities that require intensive support. Due to the partnership, children with significant disabilities will have more opportunities to play sports during the school day and participate on teams with nondisabled students. More than 1,700 students with disabilities will participate in track and field, volleyball and basketball during school hours through the initiative, while another 200 high school students with and without disabilities can join an after-school basketball team, and 200 middle school students can sign up for bocce.

Kasirer led the strategy for Stony Brook University’s bid to serve as the anchor institution for the development of a world-leading climate solutions center on Governors Island. Our team positioned Stony Brook for success through the Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) process in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, and the Request for Proposal (RFP) process in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, culminating in Mayor Adams and the Trust for Governor’s Island decision to select Stony Brook’s bid called the “The New York Climate Exchange,” which will be a first-of-its kind international center for developing and deploying dynamic solutions to the global climate crisis, while also acting as a hub for New Yorkers to benefit from the rapidly evolving green economy. This $700 million project will create thousands of jobs and generate over a billion in economic impact, serving thousands of students and workforce trainees annually, and up to 30 businesses through its incubator program on the Island.

Kasirer led the government and community relations for the Innovation Queens ULURP to secure the approval by the City Council for the largest rezoning in the history of Queens, spanning five-blocks and bringing an unprecedented level of affordable housing and public benefits to the neighborhood. In a complex political climate across the city, Kasirer team executed the strategy and guided the negotiations that resulted in the mayor’s administration, Queens Borough President, and local Council Member to support the proposal. This $2 billion project will generate 3,190 new homes, 1,436 set aside for low-and middle-income households, two acres of open space, dedicated space for entrepreneurs and nonprofits, and more to Astoria.

Kasirer led the campaign to rebuild the New York Blood Center—the largest independent, community-based nonprofit blood center in the nation that supplies nearly all of the blood to New York City’s hospitals with a for profit life sciences hub which conducts lifesaving research on diseases like Sickle Cell anemia and HIV that impact thousands of New Yorkers—and navigated through the most challenging political headwinds to achieve a historic 43-5 vote in support of the Blood Center at the full City Council. Kasirer’s win was the first of its kind in more than a decade. By building a Citywide coalition of support for the Blood Center’s vital work with impacts far beyond the local community, we successfully negotiated wins for New Yorkers in the immediate area and the entire City, and reached a deal that brought together City officials around a future vision for New York City in the life sciences and the communities served that went far beyond the local official.

Kasirer guided New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets (NYCLASS) through the City Council legislative process to successfully secure the overwhelming passage of landmark legislation that significantly expands the protections of the City’s carriage horses against the harshest summer heat. This legislation, which had been the focus of animal advocacy groups for years, will ensure that New York City remains a leader in the realm of animal welfare protections.

Kasirer worked with the Committee for Ranked Choice Voting NYC in a successful campaign to bring ranked choice voting (RCV) to NYC: on November 5th, 2019, NYC voters approved the ranked choice voting ballot unitive by nearly 75%. Thanks to these efforts, beginning in 2021, voters will have the option to rank up to five candidate choices in order of preference in NYC primary and special elections. RCV encourages candidates to reach out to all voters; allows for instant runoffs when there is no clear majority winner, saving the City millions of dollars; and helps voters make a choice when there is a crowded field of candidates, as is so often the case in local NYC elections.

A Soaring New Skyscraper for Grand Central and the City

Adding an architectural icon to the Manhattan skyline—and revitalizing the Vanderbilt Corridor—Kasirer guided SL Green through the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) for its 1.6 million-square-foot tower across from Grand Central Terminal. With One Vanderbilt, SL Green set a precedent for future development in east Midtown, and across the city, by committing to invest $220 million in mass transit and public realm infrastructure. The project received exceptional support and unanimous City Council approval.

The Airline Offers An Upgrade

For the $1.4 billion Delta renovation of its state-of-the-art presence at John F. Kennedy International Airport Terminal 4, as well as the airline’s significant investment at LaGuardia, Kasirer managed all New York City government relations. The improvements have been hugely successful and well received on every scale, from local and federal aviation sectors to individual travelers (who appreciate the upgrade).

MTA Awards Cubic Contract to Replace and Modernize MetroCard System

Kasirer successfully positioned Cubic Transportation Systems (Cubic) to win the nearly $1 billion Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) contract to replace the MetroCard with a next-generation fare payment system that will be installed in subways and buses Citywide and allow the system’s users to pay for rides with the waive of a cellphone or credit/debit card. Kasirer designed and implemented the strategic plan that aligned Cubic with key third party stakeholders and built a strong coalition in support of Cubic’s proposal that resulted in Cubic beating out four other major competitors.

“Another jewel in the crown of New York”

– Mayor Bill de Blasio

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg put forward an unprecedented $100 million RFP to create a new tech center for the city, nearly every university in the country—including the usual Silicon Valley suspects—wanted in. Kasirer championed New York’s own Cornell University, the ultimate victors for the hotly contested opportunity on Roosevelt Island. Kasirer led Cornell through the ULURP and other land use approvals, including the acquisition of state land that carries tremendous potential to transform New York, new approaches to higher education and a new international nexus for the tech industry.

Developing New York Stories Brookfield real estate holdings include two of the most vital, most meaningful mixed-use development sites in New York—Brookfield Place, formerly known as the World Financial Center, and Manhattan West. Kasirer helped Brookfield navigate the ULURP, city government approvals and processes and community relations across their NYC portfolio.

On behalf of the TWA Flight Center Hotel, Kasirer LLC led ‎the government and community outreach effort which required working with and coordinating twenty-two government agencies. The $265 million-dollar rehabilitation of the iconic landmark Eero Saarinen Building at JFK includes restoring the building back to its 1962 condition, celebrating when the Jet Age came of age in New York City. The TWA Flight Center Hotel, union-built and union-operated, includes a 500 room hotel, a 40,000 square foot conference and event facility, a museum and a number of restaurants and will create an estimated 3,000 jobs. Kasirer’s work included garnering widespread support from stakeholders including preservation groups across the City and shepherding the project through the unanimous approvals of Queens Community Boards 10, 12, 13, the Queens Borough Board, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, the City Planning Commission and ultimately the New York City Council. In the final phase of approvals, Kasirer’s role included securing signatures to the Memorandum of Agreement from members of the Redevelopment Advisory Committee.

Sustaining A Vital Care Network

For the Mount Sinai Health System—a New York network that includes a medical school and seven hospital campuses—Kasirer has helped secure and access millions of dollars in capital and expense funding. Also on behalf of Mount Sinai, Kasirer has advocated on city legislative and policy initiatives ; expedited the review and processing of Department of Building (DoB) and Department of Transportation (DoT) permits; and assured unimpeded access to and egress from the hospital campuses for patients, doctors and nurses.

"One year after NYC’s smoke-free law took effect [it had prevented] 45,000 premature deaths.”

— ACS CAN

On behalf of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Kasirer joined the fight to protect the public health of workers—and all other citizens exposed to second-hand smoke —in NYC. Kasirer organized and implemented the lobbying campaign that led to the 2002 enactment of the city’s smoking ban in bars and restaurants, parks and beaches. Most recently, tens of thousands of lives saved after the original law was put in place, Kasirer led the successful ACS CAN lobbying effort that enacted the city’s ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products.

Because New York City Has Always Been A Movie Star

Building a powerful entertainment industry coalition and campaign with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Kasirer secured key support for the New York State Film Production Tax Credit program and NYC’s Made in New York incentive program. These legislative initiatives stimulated production in New York, assuring its place as a competitive and unique location for film.

“Nothing unimportant ever happens at The Plaza.”

— said of the 1907 hotel

To both thoughtfully preserve and lead a lively revitalization of the quintessential New York hotel, Kasirer coordinated the lobbying and negotiating teams for Elad Properties. The complex conversion to a part residential, part retail, part hotel property included both Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approval and a special permit process to improve the icon of Manhattan and global glamour.

“Designed to improve the aesthetic quality of our streetscape and the quality of life”

—NYC Department of Transit

For the international advertising conglomerate Cemusa, based in Spain, Kasirer won the largest contract ever awarded by NYC to a private firm: $1.3 billion over 20 years to design, install and maintain the city’s street furniture. By introducing the company’s bus shelters, newsstands and public toilets citywide, Kasirer raised the Cemusa corporate profile—and everyday conveniences for pedestrians and commuters.

Delivering On A Mission: No New Yorker Goes Hungry

Longtime Kasirer client Citymeals on Wheels provides two million meals to elderly New Yorkers every year. Kasirer has secured millions of dollars in funding for the exceptional organization—of 31 community-based agencies that deliver weekend, holiday and emergency meals across the city to homebound seniors who aren’t able to shop or cook for themselves.