CityView, One of Nation's Premier Institutional Investment Firms, Names Bruce Crane as Vice President - Multi-Family

LOS ANGELES, May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Henry G. Cisneros, former US Secretary of HUD and current Executive Chairman of real estate investment company, CityView, today announced that Bruce Crane has been hired as Vice President – Multi-Family to oversee acquisitions and dispositions for this investment platform including the recent acquisition of 147-unit The Venue at Warner Center Apartments in Woodland Hills, CA.

(Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090819/DC63413LOGO)

Mr. Crane will have primary responsibility for development and implementation of the Multi-Family group functions, in targeted markets on a national basis.  These duties will include investment and portfolio expansion of Class A, B and C assets, purchasing distressed notes, as well as providing equity solutions to distressed multi-family operators.

"With the hiring of Bruce Crane, we continue to add experienced industry leaders to our team," said Sean Burton, President and Chief Operating Officer of CityView.  "Bruce is the ideal fit to lead our Multi-Family platform with his vast and successful 20 plus years specifically in the Multi-Family business arena running acquisitions and dispositions in different capacities across the country."

The CityView Multi-Family division uses a value-added approach to its acquisition strategy.  The company looks to acquire apartment complexes and/or portfolios in major US metropolitan market locations, in urban in-fill sites, at prices below replacement cost and where value-add opportunities exist through a new strategy, new improvements, new management and/or a revised capital structure. This strategy targets above-market returns through asset class migration (not cap rate compression), most typically taking "B" and "C" quality assets and improving them to the next quality grade asset.

A real estate veteran, Mr. Crane joins CityView with over 24 years of experience and has been involved in the acquisition and disposition of more than 8,000 multi-family units on a national basis.  Prior to joining CityView, Mr. Crane was responsible for sourcing just under $1 Billion in multi-family acquisitions/dispositions with Klingbeil Capital Management and General Motors pension funds from 2001 to 2008.  Prior to joining Klingbeil Capital, he was Director of Acquisitions for Western National Properties and was charged with the financial modeling and acquisition of multi-family assets throughout California, Washington State and Colorado.  Mr. Crane's past positions also include Director of Marketing for Crane Realty Services and Senior Marketing Associate with Norris, Beggs & Simpson.

Mr. Crane is a member of the National Multi-Housing Council and received his Bachelor of Science, Business Administration from California State University, Long Beach.

CityView is one of the nation's premier institutional investment firms focused on urban real estate, in-city housing, and metropolitan infrastructure and is a fully-integrated operating company with an active management approach.  CityView was founded in 2000 by Henry Cisneros, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in President Clinton's Administration, on the premise of smart capital for smart growth and currently manages multiple funds, all focused on urban solutions.  

Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in New York, Dallas and San Antonio, CityView has invested in and developed more than $2 billion in real estate transactions since 2003.  CityView has developed projects in 30 markets across 13 states and also continues to focus on metropolitan infrastructure and multi-family acquisitions.  For more information, visit www.cityview.com.

SOURCE CityView