PRE Students Prepare for National Real Estate Challenge

Each year Cornell’s Program in Real Estate (PRE) partners with Johnson to field a six-student team to compete in the National Real Estate Challenge, hosted by the University of Texas at Austin, arguably the most prestigious real estate case competition of its kind.

Teams travel to Austin to evaluate an investment opportunity based on a custom-written case provided to them just days before the competition. They consider a variety of possible issues surrounding the acquisition, financing and operation and of the subject investment and make a presentation based on their evaluation to a panel of distinguished judges. The Challenge provides Cornell PRE students with the opportunity to compete against the 20 top graduate schools in real estate including, but not limited to: Wharton, Yale, Columbia, MIT, Stanford, USC and Chicago.

Brad Olson, Senor Lecturer, PRE Advisory Board Member and former PRE Director along with PRE Advisory Board member Jon Minikes, and PRE Senior Lecturer Pike Oliver serve as coaches to the team. The coaches analyze an organized series of practice cases and evaluate the team over the course of the fall semester in order to help the team polish their analytical abilities, perfect their presentation skills, and gain an in-depth understanding of the various real estate issues involved in the cases.

Connor MacLennan, 2011 team Co-Captain and second-year PRE student who served as a team understudy in his first year, insists that the most valuable part of the competition experience is the coaching provided by Mr. Olson et al, “The mentoring that Brad, Jon and the rest of the coaches provide each member of the team with is incredible. They make a huge commitment to fielding the highest quality team possible each year and ensuring that we develop considerably as real estate professionals. Brad’s enthusiasm for and devotion to the team is inspiring and drives us even harder as a team to learn and perform. Hopefully we can bring home a championship this year for the coaches and Cornell.”

This year’s team consists of MacLennan (PRE), Dylan Fonseca (PRE/MBA), Randolph Zhao (PRE), Michael Majestic (MBA), Zebulin Porianda (MBA) and Ben Gottlieb (MBA). The team is confident about its prospects in this year’s competition. PRE’s Zhao notes, “Our team has very strong team chemistry and benefits from a broad range of professional competencies among the team members. We have a great deal of work left to do in preparing for the competition but we feel confident in our ability to put together a great presentation at Austin in November.”

The multi-disciplinary nature of the Cornell PRE relative to other master’s programs in real estate and more generalized MBA programs is a distinct advantage for the Cornell team. As MacLennan remarked, “Due to the comprehensive real estate education we receive as Cornell PRE students, we have a leg up on our competition due to our familiarity with issues such as real estate deal structuring, investment, project design, development, leasing and asset management. Combined with the added finance horsepower and experience that our MBA teammates provide we are able to assemble a fantastic team each year.”

Last week, the team completed the first in a series of practice cases and received a detailed evaluation by Mr. Olson and the other coaches. They will continue their hard work with many more team practice sessions as they prepare to travel to Austin to compete on November 9th and 10th.

PRE students also have an opportunity to participate in a number of other real estate competitions each year, including the MIT Center for Real Estate Competition and the ULI/Hines Design Competition. Last year, Cornell was victorious in the MIT competition with their winning analysis of a mixed-use site in Boston. That team was anchored by Fonseca, Majestic and Zhao (together with PRE’s Brandon Jacobsen), who would all like to continue their case competition success in Austin.

For more information about the PRE and the opportunities for students to participate in competitions, please contact the PRE administrative offices or visit the PRE website at www.realestate.cornell.edu.