LOS ANGELES-George Smith Partners has promoted SVP Malcolm Davies, making him a new partner. Davies will carry the title of principal at the firm.

Founded in 1992, George Smith Partners is a national real estate investment banking firm. More than 50% of the firm's annual financings are in markets outside the state.

Prior to arriving at George Smith, Davies spent 12 years as a real estate developer, investor and capital provider.

Davies tells GlobeSt.com that he sees a definite “loosening in the capital markets.” He termed the overall commercial real estate market trend as a “cross-eye recovery,” with “one eye looking to growth while the other eye is looking back at the trouble we all got ourselves in. That is the mindset investment capital is taking in 2013 into 2014.”

Beyond the big six gateway markets, where Davies says “we are in an outright real estate recovery,” he sees investment activity bubbling “anywhere you see significant job growth or inward migration trends.” He also notes that secondary markets are seeing strong capital flows right now, driven by the prospect of better yields. “The opportunity to really generate outsized yields in the gateway markets is past us.”

While Davies declined to state that the economy is entirely recovered, he notes that “I can see us getting there over the next nine to 18 months. We're really seeing strong numbers in the new home housing market. That is a very good sign. If that continues, you will see the economy really start to ratchet upwards, as it is not just construction jobs being created, but all of the other industries that go into new home purchases, such as furniture, electronics, etc. That's when we'll be back.”

As previously featured in GlobeSt.com, George Smith principal and managing director David Rifkind was also optimistic on the economic outlook for this year and going forward.