On a former industrial site in Emeryville, California, Bay Street brings homes and shops together along three city blocks. MacFarlane Partners invested in the retail development and developed the residential component through separate ventures with Madison Marquette. Completed in phases in 2002 and 2006, the project offers a concrete way to understand the work of the firm's founder, Victor B. MacFarlane: connecting investment capital with the places people use every day.
His real estate career began at Aetna in 1979. He brought training in business and law to the work, having studied at the University of New Mexico, UCLA and the University of Pittsburgh. In 1987, he established MacFarlane Partners, creating a business of his own in a field where access to large pools of capital matters.
In 1996, he sold the firm's core separate-account investment-management business to GE Capital and spent three years leading GE Capital Investment Advisors. When that commitment ended in 1999, he began rebuilding MacFarlane Partners as an entrepreneurial firm. His path connected the experience of running an independent company with leadership inside a major financial institution.
The firm's urban focus gives that career its larger context. Its work includes developing new properties and rehabilitating or repositioning existing ones, with an emphasis on urban revitalization, sustainability and places where people live and work close together.
MacFarlane also helped establish the Real Estate Executive Council. The organization, formed in 2003, connects commercial real estate professionals through networking, professional development and access to industry opportunities, extending his work beyond the company bearing his name.
In 2007, reporting on a new D.C. United ownership group identified him as African American and its controlling member, alongside fellow owners Will Chang and Brian Davis, a shared ownership venture that added professional sports to his business experience.
