The San Antonio-area real estate industry has become a bulwark of the region’s economy, creating 143,000 jobs, producing almost $36 billion in annual impact, and creating 1/7 of the area’s total economic output.
That success was built on the shoulders of great leaders, including Philip M. Barshop, who was one of the industry’s most active and effective voices prior to his death in November 1998.
Philip was someone who loved and believed in San Antonio. He had a passion for our industry, not only for what it could do to make San Antonio become what it is today, but also for what it will be tomorrow. It has been over 20 years now since his untimely passing, but his vision carries forward through each of us. He is as much a part of this great city today as he was then. Phil and his brother Sam Barshop worked part-time in their father’s produce distribution business when they began building and leasing Ramada Inns on family-owned property. After an unsuccessful attempt at purchasing the Rodeway Inn franchise, the brothers decided to build on two of their properties in anticipation of the need for hotel rooms for San Antonio’s 1968 HemisFair. By 1986, nearly 20 years after La Quinta was started, the company had grown into a successful chain of 200 motels in 28 states. In 1978, Phil resigned from La Quinta and founded Philip Barshop & Co., a real estate development firm that specialized in developing planned, industrial business parks.
Phil was responsible for establishing the San Antonio Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP) in 1981. Under Phil’s leadership, NAIOP was THE voice for the commercial real estate industry until early 1991. When it became necessary for a more locally focused organization to be developed, Phil was an instrumental force in the birth of the Real Estate Council.
As a result of Phil’s involvement, the Real Estate Council has established what we believe to be a fitting tribute to the man who is regarded as “founder” of our organization.
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