Gilmartin's firm leaves alliance with L&L, will now be MAG Partners; success, or spin?

Developer spins off from partners to launch her own real estate firm, Crain's New York Business reported yesterday, citing the departure of former Forest City Ratner/Forest City New York CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin from L&L MAG, the firm she formed with David Levinson and Robert Lapidus of L&L Holding Company.

And, without any inside knowledge, I'd bet the operative word here is "spin."

“Two years ago, we put together a vision for a new development firm and that partnership has been super successful,” Gilmartin told Crain's. “But we had always planned to get to a point where I could spin off and achieve my goal of leading a new company.”

C'mon, she's always spun things, as Atlantic Yards watchers know. Remember:

• "Atlantic Yards was always a working title."
• “Forest City does not expect to ask for more subsidy.”
• "The prompt demolition of the buildings that remain on Block 1129 also is critical to construction of the arena."
• "Decades of costly infrastructure needs, important mass transit upgrades and massive blight translated into decades of inertia."
• "We've made an amazing first impression," said Gilmartin, who predicts annual operating income for the arena will be $70 million by 2016.
• "Our commitment to the entire project remains as strong and fervent as the day we started."
• "So we're bullish on Brooklyn, and super bullish on Pacific Park Brooklyn."
• "It's quite difficult to imagine an oversupply issue in Brooklyn."
• "In many ways, they're [Greenland USA] a dream partner—they understand our business, they want to build quickly and they have the equity."
• "And I have to say that we have had enormous success with Greenland."
• "It seems to me a much better urban planning decision to put more density on that site than to muck up our beautiful arena by landing a building in front of it."
• "I certainly don't think I ever believed or supported the notion that Frank Gehry would be the architect of all of the buildings."
• “We’re not a manufacturing business."

The details are murky

So it's hard to tell whether the emergence of MAG Partners is a sign of unmet expectations, or of conflict (Gilmartin and Levinson called the split amicable), or, as professed, a happy outcome.

As Crain's noted, L&L MAG signed one development deal, an apartment building in Chelsea. Gilmartin has been involved in a Long Island City development project at 44-02 Vernon Boulevard, though it's unclear whether L&L will play any role.

As Crain's noted, the alliance with an established firm put Gilmartin to in touch with major investors, like the California pension fund CalSTRS. 

Gilmartin said she now has "the capital partners I need." But she wouldn't detail those backers, or whether she has to pay any fee to break-up L&L MAG.

Update: still murky

In a follow-up interview with The Real Deal, Gilmartin said she's exercising the option she had to leave: “I have the conviction and appetite to do it myself."

She added no details on the prospect for future projects, nor on funders.

Of course, she could be poised for something big.

Or, alternatively, the absence of sufficient projects that could bring in an income stream and justify a nearly12-person staff might have hastened the split.

Note: the L&L MAG web site is still up, while an Internet search suggests that magpartners.com is "coming soon." That doesn't indicate that smooth a transition.