Cornell Real Estate Case Competition Draws International Field of Student Teams

The team from Villanova University was named the winner in the fifth annual Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition, developed by the Cornell Center for Real Estate and Finance and sponsored by an all-star lineup of corporate sponsors, led by Title Sponsor TIAA-CREF. For its effort, the Villanova team wins the first prize award of $10,000. The team from the University of Wisconsin took second place and a prize of $6,000, and Cornell University’s team placed third, winning $3,000. The event, held November 14, 2013, brought fourteen international collegiate teams to Convene Downtown @ 32 Old Slip, in New York City.

“This was an exciting competition,” said Tom Garbutt, head of global real estate for TIAA-CREF Asset Management. “All the teams provided incisive analysis of their respective transactions, and the team from Villanova is to be congratulated for their excellent presentation.”

In addition to the winning teams, this year’s competing teams were Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Indiana University, New York University, Penn State University, Renmin University, University of Connecticut, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas, University of Aberdeen, and the University of British Columbia.

Other sponsors include: Annaly, BlackRock, C-III Capital Partners, Clarion Partners, Claros Fund Management LLC, Goldman Sachs, GTIS Partners, National Realty & Development Corp., WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate, Sawyer Realty Holdings LLC, Tishman, Westbrook Partners and hotel sponsor Yotel. The competition is also funded in part by the Marjorie Boas Levins and Jack Levins/F.H.T. Rhodes Real Estate Case Competition Fund.

Organized by Professor Daniel Quan, academic director of the Center for Real Estate and Finance, the competition required the teams to examine and present their analysis of an actual real estate transaction. A high-level panel of industry practitioners were judges for the presentations.