Michael E. Johnson is the President and Chief Executive Officer of UrbanCore. Michael has over thirty years of experience in urban real estate development. Prior to forming UrbanCore with Muhammad A. Nadhiri, Michael managed Em Johnson Interest for the last 15 years from its headquarters in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Over this period, he had grown the company to be one of the largest African American businesses in the Bay Area. This included the recent completion or current undertaking of over $800 Million in project development activity, including over 3,000 housing units and several mixed-use projects. Michael has served as the Managing Member of recent high profile infill redevelopment projects such as the Fillmore Heritage Center, an $85 Million mixed-use project in San Francisco, and the $32 Million Richmond Easter Hill HOPE VI project in Richmond, CA. Michael formed and is the Managing Member of the Fillmore Jazz Club, LLC, which is the primary investor in the ownership of Yoshi's San Francisco Jazz Club & Japanese Restaurant, the anchor venue within the Fillmore Heritage Center.

From 1989 to December 1991, Michael served as the Director of Housing Development for Neighborhood Housing Services of America, Inc. Based in Oakland, California, NHSA is a national, non-profit, secondary market lender with a portfolio of over $400 Million in loans to community-based, affordable housing development corporations throughout the United States. Prior to NHSA, Michael spent twelve years in Atlanta doing urban redevelopment and providing a full range of consulting services to neighborhood organizations; City, County, State, and Federal government agencies; as well as various private businesses and developers. Michael was President of Wilson Johnson Interests, Inc., an Atlanta-based real estate development and consulting firm. While at WJI, Michael was the managing general partner and completed the development of several in-fill new-construction projects valued at over $12 Million; additionally, he was directly involved in over 25 consulting assignments with local government and community-based organizations involving urban development planning and economic development.

Michael has two degrees; a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Urban Planning and a Master of Architecture with a concentration in Urban Real Estate Development, from the University of Maryland and the Georgia Institute of Technology respectively. Michael has served in various capacities in public and community service while in Atlanta and the San Francisco Bay Area. Noted activities include serving as a Board member on the Berkeley/California Shakespeare Festival, the Fulton County Board of Zoning Appeals, and the Atlanta-Fulton County Library Board of Trustees. Michael recently served on the board of Glide Community Housing, Inc. and is a member of the San Francisco Black Chamber of Commerce.


E-mail: mjohnson@urbancorellc.com