Walt Smith
Chief Executive Officer
Avenue5 Residential

Active in the property management industry since 1986, Walt was one of the three founding principals of HSC Real Estate, serving as its president from 2001 until it was acquired by Riverstone Residential Group in 2008. At the time of the Riverstone transaction, HSC provided property management and ancillary services for more than 34,000 apartment homes in California and the Pacific Northwest. Walt became CEO of Riverstone in 2009 and provided strategic vision and leadership for its portfolio of more than 800 managed properties and 4,500 associates. During his four-year tenure, Walt fostered a vibrant and collaborative company culture, significantly expanded the ancillary services platform, and drove substantial income and unit growth that ranked Riverstone as the second largest management company in the United States.

In 2014, Walt and the legacy HSC partners formed Avenue5 Residential to manage their 7,000 unit Investors Capital Group portfolio in the Western United States. Avenue5 Residential, a solutions-based portfolio management services company, commenced third-party management services for the multifamily industry in November 2015.

Today, Avenue5’s portfolio has grown to more than 500 multifamily and single-family properties with 100,000 units spanning 19 states and Washington, DC, managed by over 2,600 associates. Avenue5 is proud to have been named a top 15 national finalist on the Best Places to Work Multifamily™ list, to have been certified as a Great Place to Work® for six consecutive years and as one of the Best Workplaces in Real Estate™, to have been ranked as one of the 100 fastest-growing private companies in Washington list by The Puget Sound Business Journal, and to have been ranked as one of the top 10 fastest-growing multifamily property management companies by Multi-Housing News. The firm is currently ranked at position 10 on the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) Top 50 Managers List.

Walt graduated from Montana State University in 1985 and lives in Bellevue, Washington