“How would you feel about being called Peaches?”
That’s what Mary Ann Tighe asked MaryAnne Gilmartin after brokering Forest City Ratner’s deal to develop The New York Times headquarters in 2000. The idea came mid-pitch, after Tighe realized Gilmartin’s firm would get the job, meaning two women with the same name (different spellings) would be leading the project.
“I said to the assembled group, ‘Oh no, we’ll have two Mary Anns,’” Tighe recalled at a recent Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network event. “I’ll always remember them looking at me in horror. I said maybe we should do what they do in hair salons — if you have a second identical name, you take a different one.”
Two of the top women in commercial real estate sharing a name is rare. What’s even rarer is how far they’ve come. Both stumbled into the industry by chance, yet each carved a path to the top in a field dominated by men.
Tigue was 34 and had a glamorous job in television when she first heard the term ‘commercial real estate.’ She experienced a hard landing in brokerage, but with the guidance of mentors who showed her how to navigate the predominantly male environment, she began to rise. Her ascent never stopped.
Gilmartin’s entry into real estate was similarly serendipitous. A professor suggested she apply for an urban fellowship, a unique opportunity to work with city agencies during Ed Koch’s administration. She began managing complex projects, like negotiating with an 82-year-old squatter with four pit bulls and a shotgun over a site where the city wanted to build a police department tow pound.
“I solved his problem and I said to myself, ‘if this is what real estate is about, it’s about human relationships and connection, and I thought, ‘this is sort of fun,’” Gilmartin said.
Their paths crossed years later, after Gilmartin cold-called Tighe and invited her to lunch at the Four Seasons. That eventually led to their partnership on the New York Times building, and ultimately a decades-long friendship and mentorship. Both women rose to the top of their field, Tighe as CEO of CBRE’s Tri-State region and Gilmartin as founder and CEO of her own firm, MAG Partners.
This week, the ranks of women in the commercial real estate C-suite got smaller. Kathleen McCarthy Baldwin, global co-head of real estate at Blackstone, announced she will leave the firm at the end of the year. McCarthy Baldwin, one of the firm’s highest-ranking female executives, joined Blackstone in 2010 and became COO three years later, eventually rising to global co-head of its $320 billion real estate business.
What comes next for McCarthy Baldwin is unknown. She could take a senior role elsewhere or start her own venture. Her announcement comes at a time when women’s representation in CRE leadership remains stubbornly low. Women comprise 38 percent of the CRE workforce and only about 9 percent of C‑suite positions, according to a recent CREW study. Only 31 percent of women under 40 say they aspire to a C-suite position, compared to 36 percent in 2020, signaling that the path to executive leadership remains unusually steep.
The number of women at the top could be shrinking, making trailblazers like Tighe, Gilmartin and McCarthy Baldwin all the more remarkable.
What we’re thinking about: SC Hospitality and East Gate Investors are partnering on a project to turn an old Eastern Athletic Club in Brooklyn Heights into an urban country club, per Curbed. They signed a 49-year lease for the entire 52,000-square-foot club space and plan to open Kings Athletic Club, a racquet and wellness club that will have a pool, two tennis courts, a squash court, pickleball and golf simulators, along with wellness amenities and a bar and restaurant. Will more urban country clubs continue to pop up in the city, and is there a market for them? Send a note to elizabeth.cryan@therealdeal.com with your thoughts.
A thing we’ve learned: Queens native Joe Macken built a 50-by-30-foot model of New York City’s five boroughs from his basement in Clifton Park, New York. He used an X-Acto knife, balsa wood, Styrofoam and Elmer’s glue to carve nearly a million tiny buildings to scale. The model went viral after his daughter posted it on TikTok and will go on display in February at the Museum of the City of New York. Take that, Bob Knakal!
Elsewhere…
- The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that a ride on the PATH train would rise to $4 — a 33 percent increase, The New York Times reported. The fare hike would go into effect by early 2029 as part of a plan to improve service between Manhattan and northern New Jersey
- JPMorgan Chase has been billed $74 million in legal fees for Charlie Javice’s criminal defense, following the startup founder’s arrest for defrauding the bank, the Wall Street Journal reported. Javice’s legal expenses include luxury hotel upgrades, personal hygiene products like cellulite butter and lawyers who billed 24 hours in a single day. JPMorgan is attempting to overturn a judge’s order requiring it to pick up the legal bills.
Closing time
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Friday was $28 million for 18 East 71st Street. The Lenox Hill mansion is 13,000 square feet. Corcoran Group’s Adam Schneider has the listing.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $32 million for 131-02 40th Street. Jade Century Properties’ Xiaorong Zhai sold part of the mixed-use, 20-story complex in Flushing.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $30 million for 9 Jay Street. The Tribeca townhome is 8,200 square feet and listed by Compass’ The Hudson Advisory Team.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit filed was for a proposed 15,930-square-foot, five-story building with 29 residential units at 950 Glenmore Avenue in the East New York City Line area of Brooklyn. Ariel Golshan of AG Engineering is the applicant of record.
— Joseph Jungermann
