Mari Lehman, 29
Vice president of investments at Sterling Bay
Mari Lehman manages acquisitions, development and asset management efforts for Sterling Bay’s Class A office properties. It’s easier said than done.
One of Lehman’s recent projects is Sterling Bay’s 360 North Green Street, a 493,000-square-foot building under construction in Chicago’s Fulton Market, with a $330 million capitalization in a joint venture with JPMorgan Chase, and with Bank OZK providing construction debt.
“This is going to be Boston Consulting Group’s Midwest regional headquarters building — they leased half of the building as we were kicking it off,” said Lehman. “This year, we signed a 92,000-square-foot lease with Greenberg Traurig. They’ll be the first major law firm to come into Fulton Market. This neighborhood has been more tech and creative firms. This was really the first building, and deal, that has started to mobilize more of professional services and traditional tenants toward this area.”
Other projects the University of Wisconsin-Madison grad has worked on include a $278 million mixed-use development — with 380,000 square feet of office, 57,000 square feet of retail, and a live music venue — at 1665 North Throop Street in Chicago; a comprehensive capital improvement and lease-up on a 2.3 million-square-foot, core-plus office asset at Prudential Plaza in Chicago’s East Loop; a 780,000-square-foot, $940 million spec office project currently in pre-development in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood, with construction expected to start in 2024; and Sterling Bay’s 1050 Brickworks, 225,000 square feet of ground-up, Class A office with retail in Atlanta’s West Midtown, developed in conjunction with Asana Partners.
Despite today’s trying economic times, Lehman said she believes the past few years have provided positive opportunities.
“It’s easy to have a lot of success when times are good,” Lehman said. “But, over the past few years, there’s been an opportunity to differentiate yourself working through some harder times. We’ve seen both sides. You’re seeing loan workouts, rent-release requests, working with tenants who are going bankrupt. You have to work a bit more creatively and flexibly on those deals, and try to see the bigger picture. There have been a lot of opportunities to learn the hard things — not just the easy things.”
