Gina Baker Chambers, president of MCB Real Estate, joined NAIOP’s Inside CRE podcast to offer a behind-the-scenes look at how one of the East Coast’s most active development firms is scaling with discipline while maintaining community focus.
MCB has rapidly grown into a $3 billion platform, executing $1.3 billion in acquisitions in 2025 alone. But for Chambers, the appeal of joining the firm after 14 years at Artemis Real Estate Partners wasn’t just about size, it was about potential.
“I felt like MCB really had a lot of the ingredients to scale,” she said, pointing to the firm’s track record, transparency and team. It was “almost a startup challenge,” as she put it, “not from zero, but from a $3 billion base to $10 billion and beyond.”
MCB’s rapid expansion didn’t happen overnight. Chambers credits consistency and focus rather than opportunism.
“We really stay focused on the fundamentals – investing where we see real demand… and where we know we can execute,” she said. “It’s that consistency that we think makes the difference.”
Relationships are equally critical. “Relationships are the foundation of everything,” Chambers emphasized, from capital partners to local communities, adding: “You build trust by continuing to show up, by continuing to do what you said you were going to do, by pushing forward when things get difficult.”
MCB’s strategy centers on building where people actually live, not just where they work. This has led the firm to focus heavily on grocery-anchored retail and mixed-use developments integrated into neighborhoods.
While many investors remain cautious about retail, Chambers sees opportunity, especially after years of market correction.
“I think retail was so out of favor for so long that it was able to quietly work through some of its oversupply,” she said, describing today’s environment as healthier and more demand driven.
MCB prioritizes necessity-based retail over experiential concepts, favoring resilience across economic cycles. “If you over-index to experiential [retail]… those [household expenses] are typically discretionary,” she pointed out.
Two of MCB’s most ambitious projects highlight its long-term vision.
In Baltimore, the redevelopment of Harborplace aims to transform a struggling waterfront into a vibrant, mixed-use destination with residential towers, park space and a new architecturally striking “sail” building as a centerpiece. Community input has been central to the process.
“This was the most massive community outreach project… ensuring that this isn’t just being built for out-of-towners,” Chambers said.
Meanwhile, Viva White Oak near Washington, D.C., is a major master-planned community anchored by residential, retail and life sciences uses, a combination some have coined “MedTail,” a portmanteau of “medical office” and “retail.”
“If you put retail where the folks have to go to their [doctor] appointment, it’s a nice complementary use to co-locate,” Chambers said. “And so, I do think you’ll see a fair bit more of that across the country,” especially with the aging demographic in the U.S.
The project also recently secured a landmark tax increment financing (TIF) deal, unlocking infrastructure investment.
As the real estate landscape evolves, the path forward is clear for Chambers: stay disciplined, strengthen relationships, and keep building where people live.
Listen to the full episode of the Inside CRE podcast.
This post was created with the assistance of AI tools; all content was reviewed by the author.
