Marc Holliday

Who they are

Marc Holliday has run SL Green, New York's largest office landlord, for about two decades. He took over from founder Stephen L. Green in what The Promote counts as one of the city's cleaner successions. On The Promote's podcast, the REIT's rise traces to the structured-finance skills Holliday and his longtime No. 2, Andrew Mathias, brought from the late 1990s. That background shows in the deals The Promote likes best. At 625 Madison, SLG used its mezzanine position to push out ground owner Ben Ashkenazy, then sold the tower to Related for about $632M. It bought back its own mezz at 280 Park at half price, and it bought Credit Suisse's debt on RFR's 522 Fifth at 60 cents on the dollar. Holliday called the 522 Fifth trade perhaps the best of the cycle.

One Vanderbilt is his monument. A 2024 stake sale to Mori Building valued it at $4.7B, a U.S. record. Commercial Observer put Holliday at No. 1 on its 2025 Power 100, and his pay that year reportedly rose to about $21M. Pay has long drawn criticism from proxy advisers, because Wall Street has never quite rewarded the deals: The Promote has noted SLG's market cap at times trailing One Vanderbilt's valuation. A former insider told The Promote that Holliday once said "headwinds" on an earnings call, watched the stock drop, and never used the word again.

The past year tested his famous composure. When a community board killed SLG's $5B-plus casino bid at 1515 Broadway in 2025, Holliday's on-tape outburst made headlines. He had reportedly stood to earn a $10M bonus if the casino won. He also hosted a big Eric Adams fundraiser to stop Zohran Mamdani, who now runs City Hall. Meanwhile he has handed more of the dealmaking, and in early 2026 the president's title, to protégé Harry Sitomer.