CIH Properties About Page

Plaza West The initials "CIH" represent the names of three of the principals: David S. Croyder, Milton C. Irvin and Michael D. Huke. All three principals began their development careers with Edmund J. Bennett Associates, a firm which provided a "post-graduate" education in real estate to a few of the area's most successful real estate builder/developers, including the principals. After Edmund J. Bennett Associates and Croyder Irvin and Company, a firm founded by Messrs. Croyder and Irvin, were sold in the early 1970's to American Cyanamid Company, a Fortune 500 conglomerate, these three men became the senior officers of the Ervin Atlantic Company, American Cyanamid's Washington/Baltimore real estate division. Edmund J. Bennett and Associates and Croyder Irvin and Company had already achieved an enviable reputation as developers of some of the finest and most prestigious residential communities in Bethesda, Potomac, and the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. The newly created subsidiary of American Cyanamid, Ervin Atlantic Company, soon became the largest and most diversified residential real estate firm in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore market. As its senior executives, the principals (who are now principals of CIH) guided simultaneous development and building of as many as nineteen communities of single family homes, townhouses, cluster homes, and garden apartments throughout suburban Maryland and Virginia. They have now been joined by another, principal, Kevin P. O'Malley.

Today, CIH develops a broad range of residential real estate, including multi-family rental properties, condominium and cooperative ownership communities, and attached and detached single family homes. CIH offers construction management services, residential rental management services, and homeowner association management services. The CIH management team then directly supervises each step in the development process, from project acquisition through the final warranty "punch list." This hands-on approach directly involves top management in market analysis; property identification and acquisition; product design or renovation; construction; creation and implementation of sales and marketing programs; and all aspects of finance, accounting, and budget control.

Over recent years, CIH has directed increased energy and resources to a community-wide need of growing importance - the creation of new opportunities for affordable housing. Working closely with tenant groups, lenders, and government agencies, CIH has undertaken a number of particularly challenging affordable condominium and cooperative conversions and rental community revitalization projects involving the rehabilitation and up-grading of older, well-located rental properties. Particular effort is made to involve and retain the original residents in the rejuvenated communities. In the successful completion of those projects, CIH has demonstrated the experience and know-how necessary to meet the unique requirements of tenant-sponsored conversions and local government-sponsored redevelopments.

The CIH objective is to create asset values that generate attractive near-term cash flow and long-term investment potentials by applying sound fundamentals, experienced judgment, and innovative technique to the real estate development process. CIH has also applied their experience and know-how to the work-out of a number of middle and upper-priced projects in recent years, to the benefit of local lending institutions.

Some of the Washington, D.C. area's premier communities, totaling more than one thousand luxury homes, have been developed by the CIH management team over the decades, and include Salem Walk, Salem Group, Country Place, Powtowmack Preserve, Worland, Ridgeley, The Village, Potomac Station, Fox Den, Wolf Trap Woods, Indian Rock Overlook, Oak Valley Court, The Cloisters, Woodmore, Kelsey Court, and StoneCrest of Potomac.

To provide counter-cyclical revenues and enhance financial stability, CIH has enlarged and strengthened their specialty capabilities in property management. Fee revenue from its own property management is now a significant, stable contributor to overall CIH financial condition. With a confident projection of further growth, along with attendant economies and efficiencies of scale, property management will continue to be an important component in the total integrated operations of CIH.