Our Story

Mr. Smeke founded Valencia Realty Capital in 2013 after recognizing that real estate entrepreneurs were underserved in the capital markets. His strategic vision is to drive efficiency and certainty to the capital matching process, simplifying the experience for investors and borrowers alike. With a wealth of experience in advising family offices, high-net worth investors, entrepreneurs, and institutions, he has financed many hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions across the spectrum of real estate asset classes. Mr. Smeke obtained his undergraduate degree in Finance at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Stephen is enthusiastic about growing an organization to help real estate entrepreneurs and investors at all levels succeed.

Prior to joining Valencia Realty Capital in 2017, Mr. Riccio was working as a senior analyst for the top producing investment sales office at CBRE’s New York Institutional Sales Group. While at CBRE, Alex underwrote over $2 billion in real estate transactions and in 2016 was part of the #1 ranked investment sales team in CBRE worldwide. Prior to CBRE, Alex was a portfolio analyst at GE Capital Real Estate evaluating multifamily, office, industrial and hospitality assets. Mr. Riccio completed his undergraduate degree at Providence College where he majored in Finance and minored in Computer Science. Mr. Riccio is an accomplished deal maker and commands notable  expertise on even the most complex situations.