Boston Properties Has New Leadership In New York City
The woman who led real estate for Canada’s largest landlord has been tapped to lead the New York office for the United States' largest publicly traded office owner.
Hilary Spann, the managing director and head of Americas real estate at Canada Pension Plan Investments, has been named Boston Properties’ executive vice president of the New York Region, the real estate investment trust announced Wednesday. She is expected to take over from BXP’s current head of New York, John Powers, who is set to retire, in January.
“Hilary’s breadth of real estate experiences as an investor and an owner will be a tremendous asset to the Company,” Boston Properties CEO Owen Thomas said in a statement. “I look forward to working with her as she leads the future strategic growth of our New York Region.”
Spann worked at CPP for five years before leaving this month, according to her LinkedIn profile, after 14 years as a managing director at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
At CPP, she was in charge of all real estate investments in the Western Hemisphere and sat on the pension fund's global investment board. Over the past year, CPP continued investing in property even as the future of the real estate market was uncertain, Reuters reported.
Spann is an alumna of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she received her bachelor's degree in architecture and a master's of city planning, per her LinkedIn page.
Powers spent eight years in his role at Boston Properties, according to the release. He was previously a chairman at CBRE for 10 years and worked at Edward S. Gordon Co. for over 25 years, according to his company biography.
“It has been an honor to serve BXP throughout my career,” Powers said in the release. “Hilary is a proven leader and well-connected in the New York market. I am confident she will be an excellent addition.”
Boston Properties owns 11.8M SF of real estate in New York City across 26 properties, according to its website, including Class-A office towers 250 West 55th St., 599 Lexington Ave., 510 Madison Ave. and the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue. The REIT owns real estate in the five largest office markets in the country, and despite its stock being up 25.6% in 2021, its Thursday closing price of $114.38 is still well below its pre-pandemic price.
