Schulich Master of Real Estate & Infrastructure students win Developers’ Den competition
North America’s top graduate real estate students showcase their expertise
TORONTO – Monday, March 26, 2018 – The Schulich School of Business at York University today announced that a team of students enrolled in the School’s Master of Real Estate and Infrastructure Program won first place in the eighth annual Developers’ Den international case competition, beating 11 teams from leading graduate business and professional school programs. Teams of MBA students from Ivey School of Business and the Schulich School of Business placed second and third, respectively.
Started in 2011, Developers’ Den is Canada’s longest running and most prestigious real estate case competition. This year’s case competition was presented by Altus Group and co-hosted by Schulich’s Brookfield Centre in Real Estate & Infrastructure and the Schulich Real Property Alumni Association.
The winning team was made up of Schulich MREI students Alannah Bird, Derek Wei, Jordan Trinder, and Bao Nguyen, who received a $6,000 prize. Ivey’s MBA team, Evan Reidel, Eric Koehn, and Jarvis Lu, placed second and received $3,000. Schulich’s MBA team, Zachary Weinstock, Sam Magalnik, Asfar Rana, and Parminder Dod, finished third and received $1,500.
The March 23rd final-round presentation and awards reception drew over 100 industry representatives, who joined with 14 expert judges to watch North America’s top real estate students perform and network with the competitors and industry peers.
“The Developers’ Den competition provides an important opportunity for the best students to develop and showcase their analytical, creative and presentation skills as emerging talent in front of leaders within the real property sector,” said Jim Clayton, who was recently appointed to the Timothy R. Price Chair at Schulich’s Brookfield Centre in Real Estate and Infrastructure. “We are grateful for the tremendous support the competition receives from industry and alumni.”
Schulich’s new chair was established in honour of Timothy R. Price’s exceptional leadership and contributions to Canada’s thriving real estate industry. The chair, as well as the Brookfield Centre in Real Estate & Infrastructure, were made possible by a generous $4 million donation from Tim Price and his wife, Frances Price, together with the Brookfield Partners Foundation.
Last year, Schulich launched a Master in Real Estate and Infrastructure program to complement its long-standing MBA specialization in Real Estate and Infrastructure.
The winning teams competed against teams from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in New York; Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in Washington, DC; and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto during the March 23rd final phase of competition at Schulich’s Keele Street campus.
The competition’s final round was judged by Mauro Pambianchi, Chief Development Officer of SmartCentres REIT; Toni Rossi, President, Real Estate, Infrastructure Ontario; Geoff Grayhurst, President of Dorsay Development Corporation and a Schulich MBA graduate from the Class of 1991; Fred Waks, President and CEO of Trinity Development Group; and Alan Vihant, Executive Vice President of Great Gulf Homes.
“The competition was fierce as teams from each school brought forth their best and brightest, showcasing their skills with a healthy dose of competitive spirit,” said Christian Petersen, co-chair of the Developers’ Den Alumni Organizing Committee and a Schulich MBA graduate from the Class of 2013.
“We threw a curveball at the students and not only did they demonstrate the ability to problem-solve within a short-period of time, but they proved that they could think on their feet and answer difficult questions when presenting to our esteemed panel,” added co-chair Christine Trinh, a fellow Schulich MBA graduate from the Class of 2013.
The hypothetical case was prepared by volunteers of the Alumni Organizing Committee in partnership with global real estate investor, developer and manager Oxford Properties Group. The case involved Oxford’s DIX30, a 210-acre site comprising a 2.7 million square foot outdoor integrated lifestyle/retail centre in Brossard, Quebec, on Montreal’s South Shore. Phase 1 of the competition required teams to provide a 10-year strategic plan to drive the centre’s asset value while exploring a retail strategy and opportunities available through a master planning exercise. A twist was introduced in Phase 2 of the competition, when finalist teams were presented with an unsolicited offer to buy the property, recently valued at $716 million, for $800 million. Teams were tasked to assess the viability of the potential sale, taking into account current valuations, tenant activity and rent roll, as well as a competing adjacent property. Teams opting to hold the property were challenged to recommend ways to increase its value, while producing incentives and/or improvements to retain the 50% of tenants with expiring leases over the next three years in the face of a competing mixed-use community under construction next door.
“We’re proud to once again sponsor Developers’ Den as it provides students with the opportunity to further develop and showcase their real estate knowledge in a rewarding and competitive way,” said Colin Johnston, President of Research, Valuation & Advisory at Altus Group. “Through our continued involvement with this competition, we’re pleased to support the next generation of real estate professionals.”
Along with presenting sponsor Altus Group, a leading global provider of independent advisory services, software and data solutions, and technology-enabled expert services to the global commercial real estate industry, competition sponsors included Cadillac Fairview and Oxford; Quad; Smart Centres; Diamond Schmitt Architects; KPMB Architects; BA Group; Bousfield Inc.; CBRE; Colliers International; Great Gulf; Harbour Equity; Hullmark; and Minto Properties.
Proceeds from Developers’ Den will benefit Schulich’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Student Experience Fund.
About Schulich
Known as Canada’s Global Business School™, the Schulich School of Business in Toronto is ranked among the world’s leading business schools by a number of global surveys. Schulich’s MBA program is ranked #2 in the world by Corporate Knights, the world’s largest circulation magazine with an explicit focus on Corporate Social Responsibility, in a global survey that identifies which schools are doing the best job of preparing future business leaders for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business. Schulich’s MBA program is also ranked #1 in Canada and among the world’s leading schools by Forbes, CNN Expansión and América Economía. Schulich is also ranked among the world’s top 25 business schools for a career in investment banking in a global survey by eFinancialCareers.com. The Kellogg-Schulich EMBA program is ranked #5 in the world by The Economist and #1 in Canada by the Financial Times of London. For complete ranking details, please visit www.schulich.yorku.ca.
Global, innovative and diverse, Schulich offers business programs year-round at its state-of-the-art complex at York University; at its Miles S. Nadal Management Centre located in the heart of the Toronto’s financial district; and at its new campus in Hyderabad, India. Schulich also operates a number of satellite centres in Beijing and Shanghai, China; Mumbai, India; Seoul, South Korea; Mexico City, Mexico; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Schulich offers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate business degrees that lead to rewarding careers in the private, public and nonprofit sectors, and has 30,000 alumni working in over 90 countries. The School pioneered Canada’s first International MBA (IMBA) and International BBA (iBBA) degrees, as well as North America’s first ever cross-border Executive MBA degree, the Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA. The School launched one of the world’s first Master of Business Analytics and Master of Real Estate and Infrastructure degrees and has one of the largest portfolios of Masters’-level degrees of any business school in North America. Schulich’s Executive Education Centre provides executive development programs annually to more than 10,000 executives in Canada and abroad.
For more information, please contact:
Beth Marlin
Media Relations and Public Relations
Schulich School of Business
Email: bmarlin@schulich.yorku.ca
Phone: 905-717-6278
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