Mary Ann Tighe

Mary Ann Tighe’s landmark deals over the past year were the culmination of decades of relationship building that made her indispensable to clients. 

After 22 years of representing Silverstein Properties at the World Trade Center site, Tighe and her team secured American Express for 2 million square feet at 2 World Trade Center — enabling Silverstein to start developing the tower. That decision represents the full redevelopment of the site, just as Tighe’s client promised in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“How sweet that the name ‘American’ appears on the last building at the World Trade Center,” Tighe said. “It seems so right on so many levels.”

From March 2025 to March 2026, Tighe and team (including Doug Middleton and Lauren Crowley) completed 7.4 million square feet of leasing and investment sales across New York and globally.

She continued a years-long partnership with Sotheby’s with the $513 million sale in October of the auction house’s North American headquarters at 1134 York Avenue to Weill Cornell Medical Center. She also secured the $103 million sale of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York’s former headquarters at 1011 First Avenue in July, building upon previous deal-making that moved the archdiocese HQ to 488 Madison Avenue, across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Tighe expects the dual forces of office-to-residential conversions and an absence of new construction to continue compressing the city’s red hot Class A office supply, despite financing obstacles and public-sector challenges.

“I’ve been calling it the J.P. Morgan Chase contagion,” she said, referring to the bank’s new 270 Park Avenue headquarters. “People look at that building and say, ‘When I hire somebody, I want them to know that my space can hold its own against what’s being offered.’ ”

Tighe and her team kept up leasing momentum for landlord clients throughout the last year, fetching premium rents for increasingly large blocks of space. A swath of the top floors at 550 Madison Avenue recently went for $225 per square foot, Tighe said, and steady leasing activity at 200 Park Avenue included law firm Gibson Dunn’s 361,569-square-foot renewal in January 2026.

“New York has come back with force, and it’s come back despite all manner of obstacles,” she said.