Melissa Burch

Executive General Manager

Melissa Burch serves as Executive General Manager for the Lendlease Americas Development business. She is responsible for establishing and growing Lendlease’s development business unit in the New York market. She leads the investment, development, design, financing, construction, sales and marketing of over $850M of projects across the city, as well as oversees pursuits of new large-scale development sites for acquisition.

She joined Lendlease in 2015 and launched the development of 277 Fifth Avenue, a signature condominium tower rising nearly 700 feet tall and designed by world renowned architect Rafael Vinoly. The $475M project broke ground in 2016 and will open for residential occupancy by year end 2018. Lendlease is a global property developer, builder and owner, with operations in New York since 1979.

Prior to joining Lendlease, Ms. Burch spent 12 years at Forest City Ratner Companies where she served as Executive Vice President with overall responsibility for commercial and residential development. In this role, she led the development of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project in Brooklyn, spanning 22 acres and comprised of the Barclays Center Arena and eight million square feet (SF) of new housing, office and retail space, and an eight acre park. In addition to new development, Melissa oversaw the leasing of Forest City Ratner’s six million square foot office and residential operating portfolio in New York.

She received her Bachler of Arts in Government from Harvard College and her Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. She enthusiastically serves as a Trustee of the Henry Street Settlement, The Coro New York Leadership Center and the Citizen’s Budget Commission. She is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, Urban Land Institute, and W/X New York Women Executives in Real Estate.