Marissa Liebhaber.
Marissa Liebhaber, 30
President at Lineage Construction
While growing up on Long Island, Marissa Liebhaber remembers her father, Lance, making it a point to attend her soccer games on weekends — after he had woken up at 4 a.m. to head to the office of his construction company LSL. Since she effectively took over the family business last May, she can better understand that kind of drive. She says it’s in her blood.
“I go to work excited every morning; there’s always something new,” said the new president of the firm, which she re-christened Lineage Construction as a homage. “Going into construction was the best decision I could have made.”
Working in the industry, much less the family firm, wasn’t a foregone conclusion. Liebhaber graduated from Penn State in 2012 with a degree in logistics and supply chain management, working in the field until starting at LSL in 2014 as a chief estimator. She quickly found her skills and experience with coding, databases and project management fit well, and began amassing more responsibilities and respect in a field with a dearth of young female executives.
“When someone like me walks into a room with all men over [the age of] 60, it can be intimidating,” she said. ”With men, egos sometimes get in the way. But, I’ve learned to speak up and be confident. I’ve also learned that more diversity in the room definitely makes it easier.”
The name isn’t the only thing that changed since last spring. A firm known for commercial interiors for the BBC, American Express and CBRE, Lineage has broadened its scope by restoring a historic brownstone on the Lower East Side, part of what Liebhaber sees as a shift to add residential, and even medical, projects to the mix.
Office isn’t over by any means; the firm’s buildout of a two-story office space for a marketing agency on 73 Spring Street should complete next year. In a year poised to be a pivot point for the industry, it doesn’t hurt to have a new, younger vision.
“We need to accept that things can change,” she said, “and my generation is very open to that.”
