MaryAnne Gilmartin
Founder and CEO at MAG Partners
Last year's rank: 50
As one of the nation’s only female CEOs of a woman-owned real estate firm, MaryAnne Gilmartin is conscious of the need to give commercial real estate a much-needed transformation. By her own admission, development is often “given a bad rap,” and her job is to show that the modern real estate company in 2025 looks different than the same old stereotypes used since time immemorial.
“I want to show the world that this is an amazing profession where women are as good at it as men are,” said Gilmartin. “We’re building in places, and doing it with a level of thought and appreciation to make our cities a little bit better.”
No doubt both New York and Baltimore are better off after the year MAG Partners had in 2024.
Gilmartin’s firm saw one of its prime projects, the Ruby, a 480-unit mixed-income rental building in the heart of Manhattan’s West Chelsea neighborhood, reach 98 percent capacity in July. Roughly 30 percent of the building’s rental units are reserved for affordable housing. “It’s emblematic of what we’re trying to do in terms of building in an environment that elevates affordable housing, that’s respectful, and, from start to finish, raises the standard of what it means to live in New York City,” said Gilmartin.
MAG Partners also saw two of its prime multifamily projects developed with Safanad — Mabel at 335 Eighth Avenue and Anagram Turtle Bay at 300 East 50th Street — top out on the same day. Gilmartin noted that both buildings were among two of the final projects put in the ground as the state’s 421a tax abatement expired in 2023. The buildings will provide nearly 400 units of new housing to New York City once they start leasing this June, she said.
And then there’s the firm’s ambitious Baltimore Peninsula, a 1.1 million-square-foot, mixed-use development across 177 acres of waterfront property, which Gilmartin defines as “a developer’s playground” and “large-scale public-private partnership at its best.”
Last year, MAG Partners secured a 95 percent commitment on more than 100,000 square feet of retail, 98 percent occupancy of more than 540 residential units, and 40 percent leasing of the site’s office space.
“In some ways, we’re the little engine that could,” said Gilmartin. “We’re punching above our weight, and we know how to develop complex assets in complex markets.”
