Mary Jo Carney

Partner

With more than four decades of experience in commercial real estate transactions, Mary Jo Carney has built a reputation as a trusted advisor to developers and property owners across Florida and beyond. Her path to the law was not a conventional one. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Denison University, Mary Jo originally planned to become a teacher and was certified to teach English at the middle and high school levels. During her senior year, however, a dean encouraged her to consider professional school, believing she had the talent and drive to succeed in law. With his guidance and support, Mary Jo shifted her focus, secured loans to attend law school at the University of Cincinnati, and launched a career that would shape the commercial real estate landscape in Florida for more than 40 years.

Mary Jo focuses her practice on the acquisition, financing, leasing, development, and sale of commercial properties, with a particular emphasis on grocery-anchored shopping centers, build-to-suit projects, and mixed-use developments. Over the years, she has also represented owners of apartment complexes, hotels, industrial facilities, office properties, and specialty assets such as car washes.

Before joining Johnson Pope, Mary Jo co-founded and led a boutique real estate firm in St. Petersburg for 34 years. That experience gave her the opportunity to work with both local and national clients on transactions of every size and level of complexity. Known for her ability to close deals efficiently, she is often called upon to manage transactions that require creativity, persistence, and steady leadership from start to finish.

Her career reflects an evolution from early work representing lenders in commercial real estate transactions to becoming long-standing counsel for developers. Since 1997, she has represented a shopping center developer in connection with Publix-anchored shopping centers throughout Florida, handling acquisitions, sales, redevelopments, and leases. She has also negotiated and prepared countless leases with major credit tenants, giving her insight into both the landlord and tenant side of transactions.

Clients appreciate Mary Jo’s ability to anticipate challenges and keep a transaction moving forward. She understands that some projects may take years to close due to permitting, rezoning, or environmental hurdles, while others must be turned around quickly. Whether it is a large-scale industrial sale or a single retail site, she treats every deal with the same attention to detail and commitment to reaching the closing table.

Representative Matters

• $109 Million Industrial Warehouse Transaction – Represented the owner in one of the largest industrial warehouse projects in St. Petersburg at the time, overseeing the sale of property valued at $109 million.

• Publix-Anchored Shopping Centers – Ongoing representation of a developer in the acquisition, development, and leasing of multiple Publix-anchored shopping centers throughout Florida and the southeast United States.

• Build-to-Suit and Mixed-Use Developments – Advised developers in the planning, financing, and leasing of numerous build-to-suit projects and mixed-use redevelopments.

• Retail and Single-Site Transactions – Handled the purchase, sale, and leasing of single retail sites, including national restaurant and fast-food chains.

Bar Admissions

• Florida, 1981
• United States District Courts (Middle & Southern Districts of Florida), 1981

Education

• University of Cincinnati, J.D., 1981
• Denison University, B.A., English; Education, magna cum laude, 1978

Awards & Recognition

• A/V Rated by Martindale -Hubbell
• Leadership St. Petersburg, Class of 1996
• U.S. News Best Lawyers, 2020 – Present
• The Best Lawyers in America®, Real Estate Law, 2009 – Present
• The Best Lawyers in America® Real Estate Law “Lawyer of the Year,” 2024

Community & Professional Organizations

• Florida Bar
  • Member
• St. Petersburg Bar Association
  • Member

Outside of the Office

Mary Jo brings the same energy and enthusiasm to her personal life that she brings to her legal practice. She enjoys following the Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa Bay Lightning and Buccaneers and rarely misses an opportunity to watch a good game. She also enjoys reading, daily urban walking, and fitness.

Travel is another central part of her life. Together with her husband, she has visited nearly all 50 states and more than 25 countries. Highlights have included an African safari, a Baltic cruise with stops in St. Petersburg, Russia and Berlin, and time in Rome and northern Italy, which remain among her favorite destinations. She looks forward to continuing to explore new places while also enjoying simple pleasures like relaxing on her back porch with a book, a glass of wine, and the company of friends.