NEW YORK CITY-MaryAnne Gilmartin, the Forest City Ratner Cos. EVP in charge of commercial and residential development, is succeeding Bruce Ratner as president and CEO, the Brooklyn-based development firm announced Wednesday. A spokesman tells GlobeSt.com the transition is effective today. Ratner will remain executive chairman.

The news follows reports earlier this year that Ratner, who founded FCRC in 1985, would relinquish the reins of the company sometime this year. “I have known MaryAnne for over two decades and we have worked together at FCRC for 18 years,” Ratner says in a release. “Our partnership has worked well and has produced great success for the company.”

Ratner adds that it's important to recognize Gilmartin's role in “leading our major efforts, from Atlantic Yards to New York by Gehry. While I will stay involved in key projects like Barclays Center, Atlantic Yards and Ridge Hill, and be active in strategic planning and new initiatives, it is the right time to make this change. I'm confident MaryAnne will be a great partner as the president and CEO of FCRC.”

Gilmartin joined FCRC in 1994. Since then, she has overseen the company's highest-profile developments, the Barclays Center and Atlantic Yards projects in Brooklyn. This past fall, FCRC announced the start of construction on B2, the first residential tower at Atlantic Yards, which is being fabricated out of modular components largely offsite in a facility at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

At a presentation to the Real Estate Lenders Association this past May, Gilmartin charted the advantages modular could bring to the project. She noted that although her company underwrote B2 construction with an 18-month timeframe in mind, it believed that as much as six months could be shaved off by going modular, and that the format would also reduce construction costs, especially given that FCRC plans to put up a total of 16 modular towers at Atlantic Yards.

“We believe the savings on this is not insignificant,” she said. On the Manhattan side, Gilmartin also oversaw the development of New York by Gehry, currently the tallest residential building in North America. 

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