Cornell to Compete in UT-Austin National Real Estate Challenge
On Thursday, November 19th, a team composed of graduate students from Cornell’s Program in Real Estate and the Johnson Graduate School of Management competed in the 2009 National Real Estate Challenge. The annual real estate case competition is held annually at the University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business and twenty of the nation’s leading business and real estate programs from around the country compete for top honors and awards. Cornell University’s Program in Real Estate has entered a team each year since the competition began. Although the Cornell team put forth a tremendous effort, Berkeley’s team placed first, Vanderbilt took second, Kellogg placed third and UCLA placed fourth in this year’s competition. Other competing schools included Chicago, Duke, Columbia, UNC, Wharton, NYU, MIT, Stanford, and Southern California, among others.
Each school is permitted to enter one team consisting of four to six graduate students. During the week of competition, each team receives the case by e-mail before the competition and must prepare a 20-minute case presentation. The presentation is made at the University of Texas at Austin and judged by accredited real professionals from nationally recognized firms. The first place team is awarded $5,000, while second and third place teams are rewarded $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. Cornell’s 2007 National Real Estate Challenge team, named Greenlight Capital, placed 3rd.
Senior Lecturer H. Pike Oliver, the team’s lead faculty advisor, believes the competition “is a fantastic opportunity for students to apply the finance and development skills they are gaining in school while collaborating in a competitive environment.” Cornell’s team is comprised of students from the Program in Real Estate and the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Participants include Chris Haine (PRE ‘10), Robert Clark (PRE’10), Tyler Grooms (PRE ’10), Stephen Lee (PRE ’10), Erik Gutman (JGSM ’10), and Hyun Wook Ji (PRE/JGSM ‘11). Ian McKay (PRE ’11) and Justin Brown (JGSM ’11) served as understudies for the team and are team captains for next year’s Cornell team. “The competition is an extraordinary chance to apply our academic experiences at Cornell to practical real estate challenges,” said McKay.
Goldman Sachs & Co distributed this year’s case, which involves the evaluation of an investment opportunity on behalf of a global real estate opportunity fund. Team member Rob Clark stated, “The intense preparation, collaborative team effort, and volume of coaching makes the experience extremely valuable for anyone considering a career in either real estate investment or development.” After the competition, Goldman Sachs fund representatives will present a retrospective on the actual investment and its performance to date. The case competition is an opportunity for students to manage real estate issues, collaborate in a group setting, and apply their skills in a time-pressured atmosphere. Next semester, students from both the Program in Real Estate and the Johnson Graduate School of Management will compete for membership on the 2011 case competition team.