MCB Real Estate’s Gina Baker Chambers On Building Retail Where People Live

After 14 years in the equity and debt investments space, Gina Baker Chambers wanted to help a specific firm scale. 

As one of the first employees to join Artemis Real Estate Partners in its founding year, she helped the women-led investment firm grow from effectively zero to $10 billion in equity throughout her tenure. But that work led her to find MCB Real Estate, which she said had the right ingredients to balloon in size.

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MCB currently owns, operates and manages 17 million square feet of real estate assets, particularly along the East Coast, totaling some $3 billion in value. The firm also has over 4 million square feet under construction, including large master-planned projects such as Harborplace, in its hometown of Baltimore, and Viva White Oak, not far from the northern border of Washington, D.C.

Baker Chambers, who joined MCB as its president in 2023, sat down with Commercial Observer at ICSC in Las Vegas to talk about retail market fundamentals in the DMV, the firm’s retail strategy at its master-planned districts, and building retail spaces where people live rather than where they work. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

CO: MCB is based in Baltimore, so let’s talk about the Mid-Atlantic region. Particularly, the market realities in both Baltimore and Washington, D.C., which obviously have had their fair share of troubles lately. 

Baker Chambers: We are Baltimore based, so we remain bullish on Baltimore. We like to think, and a lot of people say this, but it’s true, Baltimore is a collection of neighborhoods. While we have some high-profile projects such as Harborplace, we have other things that are just in neighborhoods throughout the city, redeveloping sites that haven’t received investment in a very long time. And I think it’s making an impact on the way people feel about the city. Baltimore also has the Johns Hopkins medical school and large law schools, so we’re attracting new, younger residents.

I think D.C. proper is a challenging market right now on all fronts, retail, multifamily and office. Some of that is political, but some of that is not even federal-political. It’s some of the decisions that the local government has made, which is not making it as attractive to invest there right now. And I think they’re recognizing that and trying to unwind some of that. 

Northern Virginia is super strong, so we’re actively looking at Northern Virginia. So, I’m bullish on the DMV overall, but I would say it’s probably Northern Virginia first, Maryland second. And I’d say D.C. proper is not really on our radar at the moment, but we’re opportunistic buyers and investors.

Tell me about MCB’s retail strategy, particularly at the big master-planned projects like Harborplace and Viva White Oak.

Those two are going to be two…