Businessman Making His Mark In Real Estate Market & Helping Others

CBS4 and the Denver Business Journal are teaming up to profile companies that are "Making Their Mark" in Colorado communities.

DENVER (CBS4) - One man is holding fast in the real estate market, and that determination is also allowing him to help others.

CBS4's Gloria Neal spent some time with Eric Frank who started small but is on his way to making his mark with Cardinal Group Investments.

"I always said that if I didn't have a job I'd drive around and look at real estate anyway, so I might as well make it my job," Frank said.

And with that Cardinal Group Investments was born.

"We broke off from our day jobs during the recession to get started and try and take advantage of the real estate market and buy some properties while they were inexpensive," Frank said.

Cardinal Group Investments was started back in late 2008. Frank and three other partners have now grown to over 200 people, but he's still cautious about the payoff.

"Yet to be seen, but we feel like we're in a good spot," Frank said. "We really have a sense of pride in all the properties that we buy and we really try to make them great places to live."

The Mint Urban Hilltop Apartments are just one of the properties owned by Cardinal Group Investments.

"It's fun for us to be able to go around and find places and say, 'We'd love to buy this building and what would we do it with it? How can we put our mark on that building.' "

What's the secret to the company making its mark?

"The key to allowing us to grow quickly has been a mindset that we never wanted to be a couple guys who owned a couple properties. We set out to build more of an institutional platform, and as we did very small deals, we'd approach them as if they were big," Frank saied."We went after some bigger opportunities that we really had no business going after, but we got a couple of breaks and people gave us a chance."

As for making his mark in the community, Frank volunteers at Urban Peak, which provides housing, food, clothing and support for homeless teens. He also volunteers at the Joshua School, which is a nonprofit for children with autism. Frank says there's always hope.

"I think everyone has something that they're good at and I think if you focus on the things that you can do really well and leverage that and find a way to excel in one specific area, I think it will open up other opportunities.

LINKS:  Cardinal Group Investments | Urban Peak | Joshua School

Read more on the website of CBS4 partner the Denver Business Journal.