Northern Capital Group’s Mark Foerster Joins Real Estate Faculty
The Program in Real Estate is pleased to announce that Mark Foerster will join the Real Estate faculty this spring. Mr. Foerster will teach the Real Estate Project Workshop, a four-credit core real estate course that requires students to prepare reports analyzing various aspects of real estate activities. The chosen projects encompass real-world case studies and are delivered using professional oral and written presentations. Mr. Foerster brings enormous development and acquisition experience to the course.
"I am pleased to be teaching the Real Estate Project Workshop Course for the Spring semester of 2008. Known as the ‘capstone course,’ students will have an opportunity to enhance their skills in problem solving, and apply what they have learned in context, by working together to prepare the case for a real estate development project. Using a real site and a real client, we will be focusing on a project site in Northern Virginia, a truly dynamic market,” said Foerster.
Mr. Foerster added that “along the way, we will examine market and site research, physical planning, urban and architectural design, marketing strategy and branding, project feasibility, financial analysis, financing and equity investment options, and projected returns. The project will culminate in the form of a detailed report and presentation with a set of recommendations for a development project to the actual owner and client.”
Mr. Foerster is currently Executive Vice President of Northern Capital Group, a real estate investment, management and development company based in Rochester, New York. He is also the Executive Vice President of Macerich East Development, LLC, the east coast development affiliate of The Macerich Company. Among Mr. Foerster’s real estate achievements is the rezoning and subsequent development of 3.5 million feet of mixed-use space in Tysons Corner Center in McLean, Virginia, one of the premier enclosed regional malls in the U.S.
From June 2000 through April 2005, Mark was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Wilmorite Properties, Inc., a private REIT based in Rochester, New York, where he managed the company’s external legal affairs and in-house legal department, as well new developments and acquisitions. Prior to June 2000, he had a 20 year career as a partner and attorney in private practice with Harris Beach LLP in Rochester.
Mr. Foerster graduated cum laude from Davidson College in 1977 and from the Syracuse University College of Law in 1980, where he was an editor on the Syracuse Law Review. He then joined the Harris Beach law firm, where he became a partner in 1988. During his years at Harris Beach, he was a member of the firm’s Corporate, Health Services and Real Estate Departments. He chaired the firm’s Commercial Real Estate Development & Finance Practice Group and specialized in commercial real estate finance, including securitized real estate finance. Mr. Foerster is also a member of the American, New York State and Monroe County Bar Associations.
Mr. Foerster is married, with two grown children, and lives in Pittsford, New York. He is active in the Rochester community. Presently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the United Way of Greater Rochester, and is President of the Board of Directors of the Pittsford Community Library Foundation. Previously, he has served as a director of a title insurance company, a college foundation, a church board of trustees, and several non-profit social service agencies.