Avi Shemesh

Shemesh was instrumental in building his company’s real estate, infrastructure and debt platforms. He serves on CIM’s Investment and Real Asset Management Committees. After he and Shaul Kuba (see related entry) immigrated to the United States, they launched landscaping and design businesses and invested their profits in West Hollywood real estate. They eventually met Richard Ressler (see related entry). CIM Group recently partnered with John Hope Bryant and his Bryant Group Ventures on a $1 billion affordable housing fund. 

CIM just completed the development of 1915 Park Avenue, a six-story, 36- apartment community located in Echo Park. The firm also recently landed tenants The Busy Bee and The Irish Exit at Centennial Yards, its $5 billion, 50-acre mixed-use redevelopment in downtown Atlanta — but that development has only fueled CIM’s reputation as a gentrification boogeyman. After promising to develop affordable housing, CIM appears to be backing out of that promise, saying its first apartment tower on the site will not include any affordable housing.

CIM owns and operates $30 billion in assets, including the Lot at Formosa in West Hollywood and Two California Plaza in Bunker Hill, and has relationships with more than 200 institutional investors worldwide, including public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, global insurance companies and foundations.