Over the past 15 months, CIP has been exploring the potential of expanding its acquisition, management and disposition platform to the Southeastern US, according to CIP principal Eric Smyth. "We believe that the demographic and economic opportunities and projected growth of the Southeast markets present significant opportunities for expanding," Smyth says. The operation in Charlotte will expand an investment program that CIP has developed with its equity partners on the West Coast.

The opening of the Charlotte office is part of CIP Real Estate's previously announced plans to acquire more than $200 million in office and industrial assets in 2008 with a substantial percentage of this total in the Southeast. The company will concentrate on value-added properties in strong, supply-constrained submarkets.

Rogers will work closely with CIP Real Estate's corporate headquarters and will be primarily responsible for sourcing new acquisitions and managing the CIP Real Estate investment business plan in the Southeast. In October, CIP Real Estate and joint venture partner Alex Brown Realty of Baltimore acquired Charlotte Commerce Center for $12.3 million in a transaction that marked CIP's first acquisition in the market.

During his tenure at Buchanan, Rogers represented CIP Real Estate in the national and international investment capital and debt markets, both domestically and internationally, in the acquisition and development of CIP's real estate portfolio.

The new CIP office is located in the Charlotte Commerce Center, formerly known as the Interstate Business Park, at 4101 Stuart Andrew Blvd., Suite H.