Victor MacFarlane steps down as CEO of MacFarlane Partners’ investment group

Victor MacFarlane announced Thursday he will step down as CEO of the investment management sector of MacFarlane Partners, the Bay Area-based institutional investment and development company behind many local mixed-use and multifamily projects, as well as the Time Warner Center in New York City and the proposed $1.6 billion Angels Landing project in Los Angeles.

Legacy First co-founder Landon Taylor will take over the CEO role, with MacFarlane remaining as chairman of the company he started in 1987, when it was one of the first African-American-owned real estate investment management firms in the country. Taylor’s new role will put him in charge of the investment management portion of the company while MacFarlane will “more strategically and intimately oversee the complimentary units in the group, including the ongoing strong development pipeline,” he said via email.

“The institutional investment management business and our development company and family office have always been separate entities with some common employees,” MacFarlane said. “As I have known Landon for many years, I realized bringing him into MacFarlane would be an excellent way to re-energize my goals, our goals, the team’s goals. We think very much alike and that translates to a new era building from a solid base we created in urban development.”

MacFarlane Partners and Legacy First have worked together on projects, including the proposed Freedom West 2.0, a $2.3 billion mixed-use project in San Francisco’s Fillmore neighborhood.The plans call for razing Freedom West — the existing 382-unit nonprofit co-op, built in the late 1960s — in order to build 14 new buildings with 1,790 market-rate and 133 affordable homes, a 150-room hotel, shops, restaurants and open space.

The Freedom West co-op owners approved the redevelopment plans two years ago. But progress “was slowed to not run out of currently committed funds till more were raised,” MacFarlane said, adding that the company has received support from the city and the state and “made significant progress on raising additional funds to complete the entitlement process as well as for the project.” Its environmental impact report is nearing completion and should be submitted to the city by the end of this year or early next year, MacFarlane added.

MacFarlane Partners has a long history in the Bay Area and was part of the development team on the Bay Street mixed-use development in Emeryville 20 years ago, as well as The Crossing, a master-planned community in San Bruno near the San Francisco International Airport, which wrapped in 2010. In San Francisco, the company built the Venn on Market apartment building in 2013, which it sold in 2014.

In addition to Freedom West 2.0, MacFarlane Partners is on the development team for Mandela Station in West Oakland, which is in the planning stages of turning more than 5 acres around the West Oakland BART station into housing, life science offices and labs, retail and restaurants. It features a 30-story building that would be among the tallest in Oakland.

“We are continuing to seek development opportunities in the Bay Area, where we have been headquartered since our inception,” MacFarlane said. “We are here to stay.”

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