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Barker Pacific CEO Michael Barker dies at age 80 after a fall

Firm has owned notable Bay Area office buildings, including SF’s One Sansome

Barker Pacific Group's Michael Barker (Barker Pacific Group)
Barker Pacific Group's Michael Barker (Barker Pacific Group)

Barker Pacific Group founder and CEO Michael Barker died suddenly at 80 years old last month after a fall in a family home in Texas, according to a press release from the company.

Under his leadership, BPG developed more than $3.5 billion in commercial projects in California, Texas, Florida and Arizona, including many in the Bay Area. Barker founded the company in 1983.

The company had recently completed the $20-million overhaul of the ground floor of One Sansome in San Francisco, which it has co-owned since 2010. Barker told TRD in 2023 that the updates would be essential to winning over amenity-hungry post-pandemic tenants. 

“We’re spending a lot of money on this, and we think it’ll pay off in the long run,” he said at the time.

In a statement, BPG Managing Principal Mark Handin, who worked with Barker for 16 years, said the company had lost “a leader, an innovator and a long-time legend in the commercial real estate industry.” 

Barker was born in Oklahoma in 1944, went to Abilene Christian University for a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and got his MBA in finance from the University of Texas at Austin, according to his obituary. He met his wife Janice in Abilene and they were married for 57 years. He is survived by his wife and their daughter, Gracie Marie. Their son, Brandon, predeceased him.

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Barker has been involved in real estate since 1968. Before starting Barker Pacific Group, he was an officer at Hines Interests, where he led the development of more than 4 million square feet of office space in Tulsa, Houston and San Antonio. 

“He possessed an incredible knack for identifying and orchestrating intriguing real estate investment transactions, taking them to an entirely new level,” said Joel Stoesser, managing principal of JWS Capital Advisors. “He was a creative analyst with an extraordinary insight that transcended technical skills, allowing him to identify and assemble remarkable and successful real estate deals.”

In addition to One Sansome, BPG also owns Leandro Soto Apartments, a 46-unit, five-story affordable housing project that it built in a public-private partnership with the city in 1991, according to the company’s website. Over its 40 year history, BPG has also been an owner of 500 Sansome, 1235 Mission Street, 737 Post Street and 100 First Street, all in San Francisco. It also once owned office campuses Plaza Sutter Square in Concord, Hamilton Landing in Novato and the Kaiser Building in Milpitas. 

Outside the Bay Area, it owns six commercial buildings in Southern California, Las Vegas and Arizona, as well as apartment complexes in Austin and Las Vegas.

Barker was a supporter of the Los Angeles-based John Tracy Center, which provides services to the families of hearing-impaired children and where he served as chairman, according to his obituary. Donations in his memory may be made to the center or Houston-based Re:MIND, which provides for people with bipolar disorder or depression, as well as their family and friends.  

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