Timothy Lyons

Tim Lyons is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Cityside Capital along with his brother Greg. He is a Registered Representative of Finalis Securities, LLC, a broker-dealer based in New York City (member FINRA/SIPC). 

Tim holds the Series 82 and 63 licenses and is focused on raising capital for a wide variety of private placement offerings in multifamily, self-storage, and industrial real estate as well as other private equity offerings that provide benefits to investors like risk-adjusted returns, tax advantages, passive income, and equity upside.

Tim is also a 19 year veteran of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and currently serves as a lieutenant in the borough of Queens. He also worked part-time as an emergency room RN at a level 1 trauma center before starting his real estate investing journey. He brings years of real world management and leadership experience to his real estate investment career.

Tim’s initial goal with real estate was to create passive income and in turn, be able to spend more time with his wife and three little girls. After partnering on a multifamily property he saw first-hand the power of real estate investing as an opportunity to create passive income and build wealth for his family.

He started Cityside Capital with the goal of not only growing his own portfolio but also to help others realize the power that alternative investments can have on creating passive income and building wealth. 

Cityside Capital has partnered in over $1.4 billion of commercial real estate assets including more than 6,000 multifamily units. Tim has also invested as a limited partner in several multifamily, self storage, industrial and land opportunities across the United States.

Tim attributes his early success in real estate investing to education, investing in coaches and mentors, and surrounding himself with other like minded people.

In April 2021, Tim became an Amazon #1 bestselling author in a book he co-authored with other authorities such as The Real Estate Radio Guys’ Robert Helms, Jim Rohn’s 18 year business partner and master marketer, Kyle Wilson and many more, called Bringing Value, Solving Problems and Leaving a Legacy.

Tim is co-host of The Passive Income Brothers Podcast alongside his brother, and business partner, Greg Lyons. The Passive Income Brothers Podcast highlights the investor journey in creating multiple streams of passive income. Since launching the podcast in December of 2022, The Passive Income Brothers podcast has become a top rated show that has garnered over 130+ 5-star ratings and nearly 40,000 downloads in the first year.

Tim lives with his lovely wife, Kristina, and their 3 amazing little girls. When he is not coaching their sports teams, watching dance recitals or horseback riding competitions, Tim and his girls can be found rooting on the Providence College Friars basketball team.

Greg Lyons Headshot

Greg is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Cityside Capital whose focus is helping busy professionals gain access to the best private real estate investments the market has to offer.

He is a Registered Representative of Finalis Securities, LLC, a broker-dealer based in New York City (member FINRA/SIPC). Greg holds Series 82 and 63 licenses and is focused on raising capital for multifamily, self-storage and industrial assets that provide great risk-adjusted returns, tax advantages, passive income, and equity upside.

Greg got his start in real estate as a Project Manager for The Hosac Company, a real estate development firm in Boise, ID where he helped develop a 77-unit condominium project in downtown Boise. He then became hooked on the real estate investment concept after he and his wife purchased their first investment

property and jumped at the opportunity to form Cityside Capital. Greg graduated from the University of Virginia in 2001 where he was a member of the men’s basketball team. After college, he spent several years coaching basketball at the University of South Carolina and American University.

Greg resides in Charlottesville, VA with his wife and two children where he enjoys coaching youth sports and rooting for the Wahoos.

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Paul Dircks the newest member of Cityside Capital, is on a mission to help thousands of people maximize their investment dollars. He is a Registered Representative of Finalis Securities, LLC, a broker-dealer based in New York City (member FINRA/SIPC). Paul earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder designation and holds Series 7 and 66 licenses.

Paul brings nearly 20 years of Wall Street experience to Cityside Capital, most recently as an equity research analyst for a global investment bank. He has written and contributed to over 1,000 research reports with actionable investment ideas in residential, commercial, and institutional markets.

Paul is also an active real estate investor in the multifamily space, employing value-add strategies to distressed assets to drive appreciation.

His years of participation as an analyst and investor bolster Cityside Capital’s ability to evaluate and assess various passive income investment opportunities across sectors.

Paul graduated from Loyola University Maryland in 2006 with a major in Business Economics and a minor in Political Science. Originally from the Baltimore area, he now resides on Long Island, NY with his wife and three children. In his free time, Paul is an active volunteer in his village and his children’s school community.

We are often asked, “Why did you guys get into the real estate business after having other successful careers?” This is a great question that we just love to answer!

Tim:

After working as a firefighter for 15 years and working “on the side” as an ER nurse in a level one trauma center for 9 years, I started to feel burnt out and trapped. I was trading my precious time for dollars by punching the clock, day in, and day out. I knew there had to be a better way to build a successful career, one with purpose and fulfillment, besides the W-2 route.

I was conditioned to work hard, put away money into my 457 retirement plan and save the rest in a savings account. The problem was that I felt that I wasn’t moving the personal financial needle as far as I had hoped. That’s when I discovered real estate investing.

I became defiantly committed to learning as much as I could about all things real estate related including financing, underwriting, debt and equity, market research, taxes, entity structuring and much more. I turned my commute to the firehouse into my own university on wheels as I listened to audiobooks and numerous podcasts.

I kept on hearing stories of everyday folks – teachers, police officers, firefighters, CPAs, lawyers, doctors, and stay at home Moms – who were investing in all sorts of real estate opportunities and I thought to myself,  “Why am I not doing the same thing?”

That’s when I decided that I needed to take action. My first investment was a 3 family rental property about an hour away from my house. I wanted to be a landlord and get the education first hand. What a mistake that was! Things actually went really well at the property, it cash flowed nicely from day one and I never had the proverbial 3am clogged toilet phone call.

But I realized that I had really just got myself into a third job. There was NOTHING passive about owning and renting out a triplex. When it snowed I was stressed. Not only did I have to snow blow my own house but I also had to figure out how to clear the snow at the rental property. I swear the grass grew twice as quick at the rental than at my own residence.

That’s when I made the pivot to learn about and started to invest in larger, professionally managed, commercial real estate assets including multifamily apartments, self storage facilities and industrial assets. Being a passive investor was an eye opening experience for me. I was able to invest in bigger and better properties and I didn’t have to do any of the “hard work” like snow removal, landscaping or handyman projects.

Here’s a secret: I am the least handy guy that I know.

After finding success as a passive investor I started Cityside Capital with Greg to bring the same opportunity that changed my life to other folks looking for something similar in their lives.

Greg:

My one word answer is ‘comfort’.

By all indications, I have a comfortable lifestyle. I have a well-paying job, a nice home and a wonderful family. I get to coach the kid’s youth sports team, live in a fantastic area of the country and have a great group of friends. More than anything, I was happy.

When you get just below the surface, you always have questions. Do I have enough in the rainy day fund? Will I have enough to fund the retirement that I want? Could I be doing more?

The last question, ‘could I be doing more?’, kept coming back up to the surface. I’ve always had a goal that I was striving for when I was playing or coaching basketball at the collegiate level. Become a Division I basketball player, win the next game or secure the next recruit.

While I was living in Boise and developing the condominiums, there was an everyday hustle to do more because the goal was to build out and sell the condos quickly. Selling condos meant making money, giving people a new home and leaving our mark on the Boise cityscape.

After leaving athletics and real estate development, the hustle of building something great was gone. I wasn’t building my own business nor creating my own success.

I was…comfortable.

Enter Tim Lyons and his unwavering confidence and excitement in January 2020. The pandemic was on the nation’s doorstep but we were ready. We were ready to build our own real estate business that we can call our own. We went down the path of networking and education. YouTube content, podcasts and zoom calls. We were devouring everything we could learn about multifamily real estate and the spark was lit.

I was officially out of my comfort zone.

We were able to niche down within the multifamily real estate industry and we found our calling. Capital raising. There’s not one little kid that dreams of becoming a capital raiser but we have found the secret sauce that gets us out of bed everyday fired up to talk about real estate.

We love to help people discover the benefits of passive investing and we sing it from the rooftops (or your favorite podcast provider) with our podcast, The Passive Income Brothers Podcast.

Our business has evolved over the years. We legitimized our capital raising business by joining a Broker Dealer focused on multifamily, self-storage and industrial syndications – also referred to as private placement offerings. We secured our Series 82 and 63 licenses to give our investors another layer of comfort when investing with Cityside Capital.

These steps give us the confidence to work with everyday investors, high net worth individuals and 1031 exchange investors. We love to talk about Portfolio Transformation, different buckets of income, diversifying outside of the stock market and not relying solely on your 401k to retire.

I am a capital raiser, I love talking about real estate and I’m officially out of my comfort zone.