Eric J. Cernich
As President of Oxbow Communities, Inc. Eric is responsible for the aligning strategic partners, land acquisition, raising venture capital, project planning and complete land reuse structuring. He is also involved in entitlement processing and construction management for commercial and residential developments, with particular emphasis on REO and infill properties in Southern California. With a keen ability to analyze, conceptualize and seize opportunity, Eric is at the heart of Oxbow Communities' vision and business.
Eric Cernich has almost three decades experience in real estate development and construction of residential, retail, office and industrial projects. As a third-generation real estate developer in Southern California, Eric cut his teeth from 1983 to 1993 in the family business, Laguna Land & Cattle Company, which specialized in building retail malls and strip centers, industrial buildings and major office complexes. Eric was intimately intertwined in all facets of the company's real estate activities, demonstrating particular talent in planning and deal making, and thus assumed a lead role of the business operation. It was during this time that Eric formed significant relationships with architects, engineers, municipal officials, title agents, investor partners and other developers throughout Southern California and across the country. These contacts would prove to be advantageous in his future real estate development career.
From 1993-2004, Eric went on to residential development purchasing Real Estate Exchange, Inc. Eric acquired, managed and facilitated all aspects of the developments from master plan and product design, to project management, construction management and sales. In ten years, he built and sold $50+ million of housing developed that included 300+/- acres in Anaheim Hills, 10,000 units of low cost multi- and single family residences in Dominican Republic.
From 2004-2006, Eric was Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Development at Atherton Newport Investments. He established portfolio of 748 entitled residential lots and was part of the team that underwrote analyzed and acquired over 1,200 multi-family units for reposition. Eric created a leveraged return of $1.4M on one real estate project owned for less than two months.
Eric Cernich holds real estate and contractor licenses in California. Eric studied business and psychology at California State University (Fullerton, CA); he also attended the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea (World Campus Afloat program) studying Chinese Literature, Geography, and Geology. Eric lives with his wife and three sons in Corona del Mar, California.
