Mary Ann Tighe, chief executive of CBRE’s New York tri-state region with more than 125.5 million square feet of commercial deals in her 40-year industry career, has been honored with the Urban Land Institute New York chapter’s 2025 Visionary Leadership in Land Use Award for her work in helping reshape the city.
Known for deals that led to the tourist and entertainment hub of Times Square to be “reborn” after “decades of deterioration,” and the Financial District to bounce back after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Tighe has had a “transformational impact on our region and the industry,” ULI said.
For instance, Tighe helped relocate Vogue magazine parent Condé Nast to One World Trade Center from midtown Manhattan in a boost of confidence for downtown in the wake of 9/11. She also was behind upscale fashion label Coach’s move to Related Cos.’ first office building at Hudson Yards before the mixed-use complex attracted a who’s who list of other office tenants.
“Working in New York real estate is hard,” Tighe said on stage at a gala event Wednesday at Casa Cipriani in lower Manhattan with 14 female industry executives from different firms she’s mentored over the years.
“If we did this work anywhere else in the U.S., it would be easier. Elsewhere, politicians and the public would embrace and celebrate us, grateful for the jobs, the tax revenue, [and] the public realm improvements we create. In New York, not so much,” she said. “Returns may not be as big elsewhere in the country, but success is much more predictable and comes so much sooner. Yet we choose to practice our profession here, and the only rational explanation I can offer is that we do it for love, love for our city, love for our skyline, its power, its energy, its ambition, love for our citizens. … We are united in our passion for this city.”
At the ULI event, which gathered about 700 people in the industry, a video compilation in tribute to Tighe also featured many of New York’s famous names including Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties and New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who said Tighe helped broker the air rights sale of the iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral.