Mary Ann Tighe

Mary Ann Tighe had a big hand in reshaping several of New York City’s institutions last year.

First up, Tighe and her team at CBRE represented Sotheby’s in its deal to buy the Breuer Building at 945 Madison Avenue from the Whitney Museum of American Art for a reported $100 million. The landmarked Brutalist Upper East Side building — designed by Marcel Breuer — was the former home of the Whitney but has been occupied by the Frick Collection since 2018.

Sotheby’s plans to move its headquarters from 1334 York Avenue to the Breuer Building once the Frick leaves in 2025, emptying the auction house’s 500,000-square-foot York Avenue space. Tighe is already on that, leasing 200,000 square feet of the space to Weill Cornell Medicine in November.

“I’m very proud of that,” Tighe said about the Sotheby’s deals. “I think it was extremely good for the Whitney, good for Sotheby’s and great for the Upper East Side.”

And it wasn’t just Sotheby’s that tapped Tighe’s team to reshape its portfolio. Tighe also represented the Archdiocese of New York in its 142,308-square-foot deal to consolidate a number of its administrative offices around the city to 488 Madison Avenue near St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“They’ll be right next door to the cathedral,” Tighe said. “We’re very excited and, more importantly, they’re very excited about that.”

If that wasn’t enough, Tighe worked with landlord The Olayan Group on leasing space at 550 Madison Avenue, inking a 144,000-square-foot deal with private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice in June and a 70,000-square-foot lease with lender BDT & MSD Partners in December. Her team in December also represented investment bank PJT Partners in its 270,000-square-foot renewal at 280 Park Avenue.

All told, Tighe said her team had a better 2023 than 2022. And, despite a slow start to this year, they expect 2024 to equal or surpass 2023 thanks to stabilized interest rates and most companies having set a return-to-office policy, giving real estate what Tighe described as “a trend line to normalize.”