Mary Ann Tighe

As CBRE’s top producer in the New York area for the past two years, Mary Ann Tighe was responsible for 4.1 million square feet of deals for the 12 months that ended in March of 2022, adding to the more than 114.7 million square feet of commercial transactions in her career. 

“The key word to describe 2021 and definitely 2022 as well is ‘pivot.’ I’m referring to the larger New York market,” Tighe said. “We typically lease office space to service firms, law firms, accounting firms, financial services firms, tech firms and media firms — that’s the core business. But in order to survive in 2021 and 2022 you have to actually put it into sectors that have not been strong.”

Her work included a 255,000-square-foot lease to St. Francis College at The Wheeler located at 181 Livingston Street in Brooklyn; New York Blood Center’s 30-year, 187,181-square-foot lease in Rye, N.Y.; and NBCUniversal’s lease renewal for 339,833 square feet at 1221 Avenue of the Americas.

Tighe also worked on the expansion of Hudson River Trading by 75,297 square feet at 3 World Trade Center. And she represented ownership at the redeveloped 550 Madison, arranging the first two leases: Chubb for 240,000 square feet and Hermès for 72,000 square feet.

“Most corporate requirements before focused primarily on keeping the cost per seat low and that it was all about space and cost containment,” Tighe said. “Now everyone wants office space that attracts people to return to work.”

As a member of Mayor Eric Adams’ Corporate Council, Tighe said she thinks it’s the time to look at modifying the city’s zoning so that some conventional office space could be used for residential, medical or life science uses. 

“I think it’s less about COVID now,” Tighe said. “It’s about how COVID tricked this market into a redefinition of the workplace.”