Giannina Brancato, 29
Assistant vice president of leasing at L&L Holding
Growing up as an architect’s daughter, Giannina Brancato was fascinated with real estate from a young age.
Brancato attended the University of Maryland for a business degree, but ultimately returned to her home turf in New York City to chase her real estate dreams. She landed a rotational internship with SL Green Realty in 2016.
After doing a surprise “Shark Tank”-style pitch at the end of the internship and being the only intern chosen for a full-time job, Brancato started at SL Green in 2018, working on the operations side for office buildings that included 11 Madison Avenue and One Vanderbilt.
“The experience gave me a deep understanding of how buildings actually function, not just from the top floor, but from the boiler room up,” Brancato said. “I saw firsthand what it takes to deliver a best-in-class experience to tenants, which gave me a unique lens on what drives retention value and long-term performance.”
In 2021, Brancato started at L&L Holding as an assistant property manager and began her current position of assistant vice president of leasing in March 2024. In this role, she handles lease negotiations and develops marketing strategies for L&L’s 5 million-square-foot New York City portfolio.
At L&L’s 425 Park Avenue, Brancato helped complete the leasing, and leased the remaining retail portion to Ferrari, which took 7,629 square feet in April. But her biggest deal to date was at L&L’s 114 Fifth Avenue, where Brancato and her team negotiated a lease with Capital One in February to expand its footprint at the building by 96,606 square feet.
As for her most complex deal so far, Brancato helped to secure a multiparty lease restructuring at 195 Broadway, transitioning out a legacy tenant while simultaneously securing a 41,854-square-foot deal with new tenant Orchestra.
And after finishing a master’s degree in real estate development at New York University this year, Brancato is ready for plenty more complex deals.
“I want to continue to do deals with new developments and stay curious, stay driven, and help shape a more resilient, beautiful New York,” Brancato said.
