Tech startup gets on fast track to install sidewalk EV charging towers after hiring Eric Adams’ power broker

This story was originally published by THE CITY. Sign up to get the latest New York City news delivered to you each morning. 

A Manhattan tech firm appears to be on the fast track for a lucrative contract to provide electric charging towers for the municipal vehicle fleet, after hiring the lobbying firm founded by one of Mayor Eric Adams' closest advisors and raising big campaign donations for the mayor.

Gravity Technologies, which installs tree-like “smart poles” on sidewalks, was working out a contract with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) last fall, according to a confidential presentation to a city board from the department — with no sign of the competitive bidding usually required for doing city business

The breakthrough came after Gravity hired Oaktree Solutions, founded by Adams' former chief of staff Frank Carone. The company’s CEO, Moshe Cohen, had already hosted a campaign fundraiser for Adams soon after his nomination that raised $22,850.

Gravity brought in Carone's firm after its pitch to the city Department of Transportation using another lobbyist went nowhere. Once it hired Oaktree, DCAS stepped in and began making plans to employ the company's devices, records show.

Last October, DCAS submitted an application to the city's Public Design Commission seeking approval to install Gravity's fast charge hubs “throughout the city” for use by the municipal fleet of electric vehicles, according to a non-public project description obtained by THE CITY. The application stated flatly, "DCAS is currently in the process of contracting with Gravity in order to purchase their charging equipment and smart poles."

DCAS has so far made no public effort to solicit proposals from vendors interested in providing the equipment for these stations — the usual protocol for municipal government when purchasing goods and services, under longstanding integrity rules. The competitive bidding process includes putting up public notices seeking bids, disclosing all bid offers and picking the lowest-cost one from a vendor deemed to have a responsible track record.

Department spokesperson Dan Kastanis declined to explain the assertion in the DCAS Public Design Commission application that his agency was in the process of buying Gravity's devices. 

Instead, Kastanis stated that as part of the agency's "exploratory work" DCAS representatives have "met with over 100 companies in the charging industry to learn more about their technology" — including Gravity. He said DCAS has not signed a contract with Gravity, but without providing a timeline added, "We are planning to put out a fast-charger contract to bid."

10,000 Charging Stations

At the time Gravity was trying to get the city to install their EV chargers all over the city, the city Department of Transportation was already putting up chargers available for public use in all five boroughs. But these chargers were slow, taking four to six hours to fully charge a vehicle.

Gravity's pitch was that its 200 KW charging stations were much faster, providing 200 miles of performance with just a 13-minute charge. In fact, Cohen, a former professor at Columbia Business School who founded Gravity in 2019, claims to have the fastest charging electric vehicle hubs available. 

In March, his company opened its flagship charging station in a garage on Manhattan’s far West Side, where it operates two dozen 500 kilowatt chargers that can provide 200 miles of performance with just a five minute charge. It received seed money from Google, intending to compete with established firms such as Tesla, Chargepoint and Shell Recharge Solutions.

Gravity's campaign to get the city to buy its fast charge hubs began during the final year of the administration of Adams' predecessor, Bill de Blasio, who had set a goal of 1,000 EV charging stations by 2025 and 10,000 by 2030.

But Gravity CEO Cohen pivoted to Adams soon after his nomination for mayor, before he had even won the general election. In August 2021, Cohen hosted a fundraiser on the roof of the company’s West Village offices where multiple donors, including several Gravity staffers, made contributions totaling $22,850 for Adams' campaign.

Cohen later posted on LinkedIn a video of the event in which he addressed the smiling mayor-to-be. 

In the video the young tech entrepreneur stated that he was "not a political guy" but then went on to effusively praise Adams, thank guests for giving to Adams' campaign, and encourage them to get their friends to give, too.

"The success of Eric, the success of the city, we're all at your service as partners," Cohen said, facing Adams and then addressing Adams directly: "We're here to help you help us."

When Gravity first lobbied DOT to adopt its fast chargers, the agency was in the process of opening up what would ultimately be more than 1,100 stations for public use across the city, 97% of which are Level 2 chargers that take hours to fully charge a vehicle. 

But DOT had also started a small fast-charging program for public use and Gravity was hoping to greatly expand that with its hubs.

In 2021, while Adams was still fighting a closely contested primary, Gravity hired lobbyist Patricia Lynch, who continued working on its behalf after de Blasio left City Hall. Records show Lynch targeted top transportation department officials and mayoral aide Menashe Shapiro.

Gravity paid Lynch $5,000 to $7,500 a month, and records show Lynch zeroed in on DOT throughout 2022 and 2023, arranging for Shapiro and other agency officials to visit the firm's charging site in a garage on West 42nd Street in late 2023.

On Friday Lynch said in an interview she was "in active discussions" with the city to adopt Gravity's charge stations, but the plan could not go forward without federal funding that had been promised for months.

"We were in active discussions with the city but we ended our relationship with the client because the federal money had not been allocated for the cities and the states at that point," she said. 

In February 2024, Gravity and Lynch parted ways. Three months later in May, Gravity hired Carone's firm, Oaktree Solutions, paying them $90,000 through October.

At the time they first hired Oaktree, Cohen told the New York Post his firm was in talks with city agencies to install the devices in New York  — a city he said was a crucial proving ground for the technology that could generate business from other local governments.

“Our goal in New York, if we do a few hundred out of the 1,000 and a few thousand out of the 10,000, which we’re ready to do, suddenly New York has more fast-charging…than any other city in the country,” Cohen said to the Post.

Oaktree now went in a different direction, not engaging with DOT but instead taking Gravity's case to DCAS, which procures goods and services for city government. At the time, DCAS was already operating hundreds of slow charging ports used by the city fleet, but had received capital funding to add 1,776 fast chargers through 2030. 

In lobbyist filings Oaktree went straight to the top, listing DCAS Commissioner Louis Molina as the subject of its lobbying on behalf of Gravity.

Carone is one of Adams' longest-running allies and played a key role in bringing the mayor to power as the attorney for the Kings County Democratic Committee, which backed Adams in his campaigns for Brooklyn borough president and then in his quest for City Hall. After he won office, Adams brought Carone in as his chief of staff, a role he played until late 2022 when he quit to form Oaktree.

Carone's influence with the mayor continues unabated. He was with the mayor at Gracie Mansion the night before Adams surrendered to federal authorities to face his indictment in September and he accompanied Adams recently when he met with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

Responding to THE CITY by text, Carone stated he had no knowledge of the lobbying on behalf of Gravity. Daniel Tietz, the Oaktree lobbyist listed as handling Gravity's account, did not return THE CITY's calls seeking comment. Tietz served as commissioner of the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) under Gov. Kathy Hochul, resigning in July 2023 to take a job with Carone's firm.

In its lobbyist disclosure reports, Oaktree lists the subject of its lobbying for Gravity as "electric charging for vehicles" and "payment processing system compatibility." Gravity officials say under the plan discussed with DCAS, the firm would place its hubs on sidewalks. Gravity would maintain the devices and bill the city a per-charge fee, which has yet to be negotiated.

Looming Towers

Because the charging hubs would be installed on sidewalks, DCAS needs the approval of the city's Public Design Commission, a volunteer board of engineers, architects, and elected officials that weighs in on the aesthetics of anything placed in a public space. The same board approved Link5G transmission towers in December 2022 at the request of the city’s technology agency, prompting uproar in many communities.

Renderings from Gravity show a “tree” that consists of a small box mounted on a slender pole with an arm that pivots down when in use, with a power cable that attaches to vehicles.

DCAS filed its application with the commission on Oct. 18, promising that the chargers "would be mounted on smart poles that will enable seamless integration of EV chargers into the urban landscape." The poles would be "visually appealing" and could also accommodate other functions such as air monitoring, street lighting and public WiFi.

The commissioners discussed DCAS' application during executive session at an Oct. 21 meeting but did not take a position, according to a source familiar with the situation. In response to THE CITY's questions, Julianna Monjeau, a senior archivist and information specialist at the Public Design Commission, stated in an email, "We have not formally reviewed or approved the electric vehicle charger hub," adding that, "Projects are submitted by city agencies for formal review and approval at the Design Commission's public meetings."

In response to questions from THE CITY, Patrick Nennewitz, head of business operations for Gravity, said his company's charging stations outperform all others, including during this week's Arctic conditions he said did a number on his competitors’ charging hubs.

"When other sites and chargers broke down during this recent cold snap, our Midtown Charging Center was at full capacity with thousands of drivers coming from all over the region," he said, referencing the West 42nd Street garage. "Since we opened a year ago, agencies from across the country have been visiting our site and evaluating our UL-listed equipment, especially our curbside charging product. They’ve experienced competitors’ poor performance firsthand, and they see a massive upgrade with what we offer.”

Gravity officials declined to address the firm's reasoning for switching to Carone's lobbying firm or raising money for Adams. Asked about DCAS' assertion to the design commission that the agency was "in the process of contracting with Gravity," Nennewitz responded, "We are not in the process of contracting with any City agency, though we remain interested in doing so in the future and will respond to any public solicitations."

Gravity’s turnaround from "no" at DOT to a “go” at DCAS follows a theme that has played out repeatedly with the Adams administration, where firms seeking city business break through after hiring a close associate of the mayor’s. 

At least one of those dealings is the subject of a federal investigation. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III and Schools Chancellor David Banks both resigned last fall following an FBI raid of their homes. Investigators are reportedly taking an interest in dealings with a Florida company called Saferwatch, which ditched its lobbyist and hired a third Banks brother, Terence, as it sought to get New York City schools to buy its "panic button" app technology the company says provides immediate notification of emergencies.

Hiring political insiders to try and win lucrative city contracts is a longstanding practice, but  competitive bidding exists to short-circuit influence-peddling by requiring objective analysis of the best value to city government, reinforced by public disclosure and comment.

Gravity's chances of ultimately getting its chargers on New York City sidewalks appear to be good. DCAS spokesperson Kastanis pointed out to THE CITY that the agency now operates 335 fast chargers that provide 50 to 62 kilowatt charges, with plans to explore devices that can handle 180 to 300 kilowatts.

Gravity officials say that their charging hubs would be able to easily perform at that level.

Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.