My impression is that Bloomberg has consciously chosen the strategy of encouraging second home ownership in Manhattan as an attempt to decouple New Yorks service and consumer economy from the financial services sector.
This trades off the progressive goals like affordable housing against providing a baseline of consumption activity to sustain NYC's tax base and its service workers.
An apartment in a condo in NYC will be about $100k+ per year in fees and taxes. Dozens of people will be employed in the management and maintenance of the building.
I've also got the impression that consumption of various luxury goods and services in NY is highly coupled to bonus season in the financial sector. Millionaires from Kansas etc are likely to consume such services like Broadway, Bergdorfs etc year around because there are a lack of equivalent services back home.
It depends on the buildings amenities and staffing levels. You can find multimillion dollar properties with no staff but generally there is a dozenfull time staff members is a 100 hundred unit building
This trades off the progressive goals like affordable housing against providing a baseline of consumption activity to sustain NYC's tax base and its service workers.