MaryAnne Gilmartin Steps In As Interim CEO At Mack-Cali

New Jersey real estate investment trust Mack-Cali Realty Corp. has installed MaryAnne Gilmartin as temporary CEO while the board continues to seek a permanent appointment, the firm announced Monday.

Gilmartin, the former CEO of Forest City Ratner and L&L MAG, last year spun off from the latter to create her own development firm, MAG Partners. She is replacing outgoing CEO Michael DeMarco.

"On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Michael for his service to Mack-Cali,” Gilmartin said in the statement. "I look forward to working with the talented Mack-Cali team and all of our stakeholders to ensure that the Company operates at the highest level."

The Mack-Cali board, on which Gilmartin has served since 2019, has formed a committee to find a new CEO. Gilmartin’s MAG Partners will “continue to operate under internal leadership” while she serves as Mack-Cali's interim CEO, per the statement.

The C-suite shakeup follows a proxy fight between Mack-Cali and New York investor Bow Street about what direction the company should be taking, including whether or not it should be sold. In June 2019, Bow Street won the ability to install four seats on the company board, and Gilmartin was one of the appointments. The REIT also agreed to do away with the “Mack Agreement,” which had enabled the Mack family to nominate up to three directors to its board, The Real Deal reported at the time.

On its fourth-quarter 2019 earnings call, then-CEO DeMarco said the company planned to intensify its focus on waterfront properties while selling off other assets, especially suburban office. The company has suburban office holdings valued at $1.15B. About $250M worth of those properties were already slated for sale in deals that were expected to close by the end of 2020, DeMarco said at the time.

Contact Miriam Hall at miriam.hall@bisnow.com.