Eric Smyth

Eric C. Smyth is a founding Principal and the Chief Executive Officer of CIP Real Estate, a full-service real estate investment and management company he co-founded in 1995 with partner Robert Strom. The firm specializes in the acquisition, development, and repositioning of multi-tenant industrial parks. Smyth has been actively involved in the real estate industry since 1982 and is a licensed California real estate broker. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Real Estate Finance and Entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California.

Before CIP, Smyth was a principal of Smyth Asset Management Company and was involved with Smyth Brothers, Inc., a family office engaged in residential and commercial development — a background in development, investment, and management that he combined with Strom's experience in finance, law, and marketing to build the firm. At CIP he directs property operations and serves as the primary point of contact for property acquisitions, sharing responsibility for due diligence and underwriting of all purchase and sale transactions.

Over his tenure, Smyth has overseen acquisitions and dispositions exceeding $1 billion personally, while CIP as a firm reports more than $4.0 billion in completed real estate transactions and a managed portfolio of over 10.5 million square feet. He has managed renovation programs spanning more than 8 million square feet. Smyth is a recurring honoree on the Orange County Business Journal's "OC500" list of the region's most influential business leaders.

• Invests in existing, income-producing multi-tenant industrial and business parks — not ground-up speculative core product — with a Core-Plus to Value-Add risk profile.
• Target deal sizes run $5M–$100M per project, with portfolio acquisitions up to ~$300M; the firm prides itself on closing complex, aggregated multi-park transactions.
• Value-creation playbook: substantial renovation, re-branding, re-positioning, and aggressive leasing, plus capturing land available for future development.
• Persistently bullish on industrial fundamentals: Smyth has argued that tight supply means "rental rates should stay elevated for the best product," and favors infill markets "where replacement is difficult due to limited industrial-zoned land."
• Geographic conviction in high-growth Sun Belt / Southeast and Texas markets alongside the firm's established Western U.S. footprint.