Barry was influential real estate investor
Longtime Milwaukee commercial real estate broker and investor James T. Barry Jr., who played key roles in developing some of the area’s first suburban business parks, has died.
Barry, chairman of The Barry Co., died Tuesday at the age of 85, according to an announcement from the firm. Barry was born in Milwaukee in 1933. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin Law School before joining Barry Co. in 1959.
Barry in 1964 assumed leadership of the company, which was founded in 1921 by his father, James T. Barry Sr.
By the 1960s, with the development of I-94 and other freeways, more Milwaukee companies, particularly industrial businesses, were looking for new buildings in the suburbs.
Barry Jr. secured land between Moorland and Calhoun roads, from the railroad tracks to south of Cleveland Avenue, that became the 1,100-acre New Berlin Industrial Park. Starting in 1964, he helped persuade city officials to finance the park’s development.
Barry Co. sold out the park’s parcels by 1970. Over the following decade, the company also sold parcels at industrial parks in Oak Creek, Germantown, Menomonee Falls and Muskego.
In addition, the firm served as the listing agent for the Milwaukee area’s first suburban office park, Bishop’s Woods Office Park, in Brookfield. It was developed in the early ’70s.
Barry served as president of the Milwaukee Board of Realtors and as a director of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors.
He also served as a director of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and on several other corporate, institutional and nonprofit boards.
“My father had the great gift of truly loving what he did, as well as seeing it as his vocation in life,” said his son, James T. Barry III, Barry Co. president.
“In addition, he was deeply devoted to the Milwaukee community, not only as a business leader, but also as an engaged civic leader with a wide array of involvements,” said Barry, whose brothers Kevin and David also are Barry Co. brokers.