CIM Commercial Trust Corporation

What CIM Commercial Trust Corporation does

Creative Media & Community Trust Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCT), formerly CIM Commercial Trust Corporation, is a publicly traded real estate investment trust externally managed by CIM Group. The company acquires, owns, operates, and develops premier creative office and multifamily residential properties concentrated in high-barrier-to-entry urban markets across California (Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento) and Texas (Austin).

CMCT's product portfolio splits into two asset classes. The creative office book is anchored by Penn Field, a 228,000-square-foot, 16-acre campus in Austin's SoCo Business District originally developed in 1918 as a U.S. military air base and repositioned into modern creative workspace; rents at Penn Field have reportedly grown more than threefold since the 2007 off-market acquisition. The creative office book targets technology, media, and entertainment tenants including Google Fiber, Pandora, F45 Training (corporate headquarters in a 44,000 sq ft 2020 build-to-suit), Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Lyft, Vital Farms, Deep Eddy Vodka, Cumulus Media, Westwood One, 3 Arts Entertainment, frog, Lisson Gallery, and Twisted Pixel. The multifamily book comprises Channel House (333 units, Jack London Square, Oakland) and Eleven Fifty Clay Street (288 units, 16-story uptown Oakland building), acquired in Q1 2023 at discounts to replacement cost, alongside a development pipeline that includes 1915 Park Avenue (36 units, Echo Park), 3022 South Western (114 units, Jefferson Park), 3101 South Western (40 units, Jefferson Park), 2 Kaiser (Oakland), and an eight-story East Austin project.

The revenue model is recurring rental income from commercial leases (multi-year contracts with enterprise tenants) and residential leases (monthly) augmented by one-time development yields. Distribution is direct enterprise leasing supported by property-specific availability websites. Capital structure and management fees flow through the CIM Group external management arrangement, with CIM Group providing acquisition, development, financing, leasing, property management, and distribution functions. Company leadership includes David Thompson (CEO), Brandon Hill (CFO), Shaul Kuba (CIO, CIM Group co-founder), and Richard Ressler (Chairman, CIM Group co-founder).

Name

CIM Commercial Trust Corporation

Legal name

Creative Media & Community Trust

Website

https://creativemediacommunity.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

1993

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Creative Media & Community Trust is a publicly traded REIT that acquires, develops, and operates creative office and multifamily residential properties in high-barrier-to-entry California and Texas markets, serving technology, media, entertainment, and residential tenants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Commercial Real Estate (REIT)

NAICS

Other Financial Investment Activities (5239)

SIC

Real Estate Dealers (For Their Own Account) (6532)

akta.pro primary industry

Commercial Real Estate Brokerage (Leasing & Sales) (FSAEAJAB)

Keywords

• Commercial real estate
• Real estate investment trust
• Creative office properties
• Multifamily residential
• Property development

Headquarters

HQ city

Dallas

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Office Property Rental Income: CMCT generates revenue through leasing creative office space to tenants in technology, media, and entertainment industries. The company owns and operates office properties in vibrant communities including Austin, TX, Beverly Hills, CA, Culver City, CA, Los Angeles, CA, Oakland, CA, San Francisco, CA, and Sacramento, CA.
2. Multifamily Residential Rental Income: CMCT generates revenue through leasing multifamily residential units. The company expanded its multifamily portfolio with acquisitions of Channel House (333 units) and Eleven Fifty Clay (288 units) in Oakland, California in Q1 2023.
3. Property Development: CMCT pursues development projects to maximize asset value and serve community needs. Development projects include 1915 Park Avenue (36 units in Echo Park, Los Angeles), 3022 South Western (114 units in Jefferson Park, Los Angeles), 3101 South Western (40 units in Jefferson Park, Los Angeles), and 2 Kaiser (Lake Merritt, Oakland).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

CIM Commercial Trust Corporation (now operating as Creative Media & Community Trust, NASDAQ: CMCT) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires, develops, and operates premier creative office and multifamily residential properties in vibrant U.S. communities. Its portfolio spans approximately 228,000 square feet of creative office space at Penn Field in Austin and multifamily assets such as Channel House (333 units) and Eleven Fifty Clay (288 units) in Oakland, with a development pipeline in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Austin.

Product overview

CMCT operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that primarily focuses on the acquisition, ownership, operation, and development of premier creative office and multifamily residential properties in vibrant and emerging communities. The company's core product portfolio consists of two main asset classes: Creative Office Properties (bright, open, distinctive workspaces designed to encourage creativity and collaboration for tenants in technology, media, and entertainment industries) and Multifamily Residential Properties (top-tier apartment communities with modern amenities, remote work spaces, and walkable neighborhood access). CMCT leverages the expertise of its manager, CIM Group, and has a development pipeline including projects in Los Angeles (Echo Park, Jefferson Park), Oakland, and Austin. Notable properties include Penn Field (228,000 SF creative office campus in Austin), Channel House (333-unit multifamily in Oakland), and Eleven Fifty Clay Street (288-unit high-rise in Oakland).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Creative Office Properties Premier creative office assets strategically located in vibrant and emerging communities, designed with bright, open, distinctive workspaces to encourage creativity and collaboration for tenants in technology, media, and entertainment industries.
• Multifamily Residential Properties Top-tier multifamily communities with modern décor, luxury amenities, ample floorplans, common space for remote work, and walkable access to vibrant neighborhoods, shopping, and dining.
• Penn Field Creative Office Campus An approximately 228,000-square-foot, 16-acre creative office campus in Austin's SoCo Business District, originally developed in 1918 as a U.S. military air base and transformed into a modern creative office campus with lush landscaping.
• Channel House Apartments
• Eleven Fifty Clay Street Apartments A 16-story multifamily residential building in uptown Oakland with 288 well-appointed units and scenic views, situated near the 12th Street BART station providing easy access to San Francisco.

Quantifiable outcome

• Rents at Penn Field have increased more than threefold since 2007 acquisition.

Named customers13 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• CIM Group: CMCT's external manager, founder-controlled private real estate and infrastructure investment firm. Not a public market peer but a critical counterpart — its competing private funds, capital allocation decisions and fee structure directly determine CMCT's growth, deal access and unitholder returns.

Direct peers

• Kilroy Realty Corporation: West Coast-focused publicly traded REIT specializing in Class A creative office and life science space in Los Angeles, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin — a direct competitor for creative office tenants in CMCT's core markets.
• AvalonBay Communities: National multifamily REIT with significant West Coast and urban infill exposure — operates Class A urban apartment communities analogous to CMCT's Channel House and Eleven Fifty Clay in Oakland.
• Equity Residential: Large-cap publicly traded multifamily REIT with a significant coastal urban portfolio in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego and Seattle — directly comparable to CMCT's Oakland multifamily acquisitions and broader urban infill strategy.
• Office Properties Income Trust: Publicly traded REIT focused on owning and leasing office properties to single tenants and government/corporate users — provides a useful peer benchmark for the leasing economics and risks of CMCT's office segment.
• Essex Property Trust: West Coast pure-play multifamily REIT focused exclusively on supply-constrained California and Seattle markets — directly comparable to CMCT's multifamily strategy and Oakland asset locations.
• UDR, Inc. National multifamily REIT with a coastal-urban-tilted portfolio — comparable to CMCT's multifamily segment in target tenant demographics, urban infill locations and Class A product positioning.
• Douglas Emmett: REIT that owns and operates Class A office and multifamily properties primarily in coastal Los Angeles and Honolulu submarkets — closely matching CMCT's West Coast office-plus-multifamily mix and tenant profile.
• Hudson Pacific Properties: West Coast-focused publicly traded REIT with significant creative office and studio production space portfolios in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other markets — directly comparable to CMCT's creative office strategy targeting media, entertainment and technology tenants.

Emerging players

• Veris Residential: Smaller-cap multifamily REIT focused on Class A multifamily properties primarily in the Northeast/New Jersey — comparable in scale to CMCT and a useful small-cap multifamily benchmark, though not a direct geographic competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC8L5ITEEzBdVPJ4RbNAmfEA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cimgroup
• Instagraminstagram.com/cimgroup

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CIM Commercial Trust Corporation