ERIC CRESS

Principal

Eric Cress concentrates on acquisition, development, finance, and property management for UDP. He oversees our budgets and the entire process of getting us from acquisition to construction. He also initiates loans for our private real estate funds. In addition to his work at UDP, Eric is the Chief Financial Officer and Principal Broker of Willamette Capital Management, Ltd. (formerly Pontes Financial Group, Ltd.).

Before co-founding Urban Development Partners, Eric worked as a project manager for Pacific Bay Investments, LLC. Eric managed the entitlement and development of 60,000 square feet of residential mixed-use properties in downtown Oakland and Berkeley. He has a strong interest in transit-oriented, mixed-use urban development and aspires to develop projects that make cities more family-friendly and environmentally sustainable.

From 1994 to 2002, Eric worked as a design engineer, managing engineering projects for Cypress Semiconductor, Maple Optical Systems, Leapfrog Toys, and the National Science Foundation. Eric holds eight patents and has published several papers related to this work.

Eric earned a Masters in Business Administration with a focus in real estate finance from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley in 2004, and B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering, both from Mississippi State University. Eric is a licensed real estate broker in California. He has served on the governing board of the Berkeley Real Estate Alumni Association and on the project review committee of Livable Berkeley, a pro-Smart Growth, nonprofit organization.

Eric lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and three children.