Shaul Kuba, Avi Shemesh and Richard Ressler

2026 has been a year of change for CIM Group, a Los Angeles-based, vertically integrated owner, investor, developer and lender that has been in business since 1994 and has properties across 30 states. 

In June, CIM Real Estate Finance Trust announced it had acquired CIM Group to form a combined entity holding $30 billion worth of assets. Changes from that, of course, rippled across the companies. 

“We are creating a real assets manager with greater scale, stronger alignment, enhanced resources and a commitment to long-term value creation, while preserving continuity across our leadership team, investment professionals and operations,” Richard Ressler said in a statement after the deal was announced. Ressler leads CIM Group alongside fellow founders Shaul Kuba and Avi Shemesh. 

That wasn’t the only big headline in 2026. Over the summer, Permanent Power Company, a national energy platform started by CIM Group in May 2026, closed a $600 million construction financing facility to build a 20,00-acre solar park in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Known as Grape, the solar park will deliver clean energy to more than 86,000 California homes each year. 

“This financing is an important milestone for Permanent Power Company that reflects the confidence our capital partners have in our ability to develop and deliver large-scale power generation and energy storage projects,” Shemesh said in a statement. 

Other notable achievements in California over the last year for the firm include leasing 31,435 square feet at the Lot at Formosa — an 11-acre production space in West Hollywood that opened more than 100 years ago and that CIM Group sold back to itself and recapitalized in a $229.8 billion deal. 

The firm was also busy overseeing City National 2CAL, a 1.4 million-square-foot, 52-story skyscraper in the Bunker Hill District of Downtown Los Angeles that has exhibited stronger leasing since it signed the Southern California Gas Company to a nearly 200,000-square-foot lease two years ago. CIM’s in-house leasing team is working with JLL to fill an office building that has been a feature of the L.A. skyline since 1992.