Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition

The Cornell team took first place this year at the seventh annual Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition.

The six-member winning team representing Cornell was Yiwei Chen ’16, Jackson Foo ’16, Ryan Helkowski ’16, Jack Henry Kapp ’17, Sarah Murdoch ’16, and Tia Wei ’16. Nineteen teams of undergraduate students from the top real estate programs in the world competed for a share of $21,500 in prize money. As first place winners, the Cornell team walked away with a purse of $10,000. The other finalists of the competition were University of Sydney in second place, Indiana University in third, and University of Wisconsin at Madison and New York University in fourth and fifth place.

Organized by the Center for Real Estate and Finance at the School of Hotel Administration (SHA), the competition has been drawing an ever-increasing number of universities since its inaugural year. This year’s competition garnered 19 teams from seven countries with more than 150 student participants. Daniel Quan, SHA professor and creator of the competition commented, “This is probably one of the largest such international competitions in the world. We had teams representing the United States, Canada, South Korea, China, Japan, United Kingdom, and Australia.” The buzz around the event this year was that the judges and observers were duly impressed with the professional quality of the student presentations.

The competition tasks student teams to prepare an analysis of an actual commercial real estate transaction. The winning team’s case was provided by Fortress Investment Group and written by Bradley Walker and Darren Wang. The Cornell team was asked to play the role of an international real estate private equity fund and had to evaluate the merits of each of three major assets held by a company that was being considered in a large scale acquisition.

This year’s participating universities were: Brown University, Cornell University, Indiana University, Konkuk University, McGill University, New York University, Pennsylvania State University, Renmin University of China, Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Aberdeen, University of British Columbia, Sauder School of Business, University of Cambridge, University of Connecticut, University of Guelph, University of Michigan, University of Sydney, University of Texas at Austin, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Villanova University, and Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.

The team from the University of British Columbia was named the winner in the sixth annual Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition.

The Center for Real Estate and Finance at Cornell University hosted the competition November 4th in New York City and it was sponsored by an all-star lineup of corporate sponsors, led by Title Sponsor TIAA-CREF. The top undergraduate academic real estate programs in the world enter teams of six real estate students to compete in this exciting and enriching academic event. Each team has five days to prepare their analysis and make a recommendation on the case, which is based on an actual commercial real estate transaction. Teams present their analysis to a panel of judges, who determine a winner based on the best overall analysis and presentation. The teams are judged not only on their investment recommendations, their approach to the problem, and their presentation skills, but also on their ability to answer and respond to direct and probing questions posed by the judges.

In addition to the winning team, this year’s competing teams were Brown University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Cornell University, Indiana University, McGill University, New York University, Renmin University, University of Aberdeen, University of Cambridge, University of Connecticut, University of Guelph, University of Michigan, University of Sydney, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin, and Villanova University.

2014 COMPETITION PROGRAM

Videos of the top-placing teams’ presentations:

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.

Judges

• John Beaman, AREA Partners
• Greg Fay, Archon
• Sally Gordon, BlackRock
• Obaid Khan, Tishman Realty Corporation
• Joanna Mulford, Prudential Real Estate Investors
• John Orrico, NRDC
• Thad Paul, Carlyle Group
• Michael Profenius, Grove International Partners
• Kevin Riordan, CreXus Investment Corp
• Paula Schaefer, New York Women Executives in Real Estate
• Sush Torgalkar, Westbrook Partners
• Robert Vahradian, GTIS
• Tim Wang, Clarion Partners
• Shannon Wright, TIAA-CREF

Participating Universities

• Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
  Center for Hospitality and Real Estate Research
  School of Hotel and Tourism Management
• Cornell University
  Center for Real Estate and Finance
  School of Hotel Administration
• Indiana University
  Benecki Center for Real Estate Studies
  Kelley School of Business
• Maastricht University
  European Property Research Institute
  School of Business and Economics
• New York University
  Leonard N. Stern
  School of Business
• Pennsylvania State University
  Smeal College of Business
• Renmin University of China
• University of Cambridge
  Department of Land Economy
• University of Connecticut
  Center for Real Estate
  School of Business
• University of Guelph
  College of Management & Economics
• University of Michigan
• University of North Carolina
  Kenan-Flager Business School
• University of Pennsylvania
  The Wharton School
• University of Wisconsin at Madison
  James A. Graaskamp
  Center for Real Estate
  School of Business
• Villanova University
  Daniel M. DiLella
  Center for Real Estate
  School of Business

Sponsors

Cornell Team Wins Real Estate Case Competition

A team of six undergraduates and three alternatives won the 3rd annual Cornell International Real Estate Case Competition, held in New York City on November 10, 2011. The team competed against 10 other schools, including entries from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and Renmin University in China.

This year’s case, “Chelsea Plaza” involves a historic 15-story 2.9 million square foot building that occupies a city block in Manhattan. The partnership can harvest significant appreciation if the building is sold, but holding and redeveloping the building is a reasonable alternative. The Cornell team was commended for their analysis of the financial and market data but also for understanding the dynamics within the equity partnership. Judge Frank Sullivan of Clarion Partners said “…the Cornell team understood that the partners had differing motivations; the institutional partners were motivated to continue to harvest annual cash flow after debt service while the general partners were motivated to harvest the appreciated value of the building, a meaningful part of their personal wealth!”

The Center for Real Estate and Finance hosted the 2nd Annual Cornell Real Estate Case Competition, Wednesday, November 10 – Thursday, November 11, 2010 in New York City. TIAA-CREF generously offered to hold this event at their corporate headquarters – 730 3rd Avenue.

Seven of the top undergraduate academic real estate programs in the country and in Canada have entered teams of six real estate students to compete in this exciting and enriching academic event. Each team has four days to prepare their analysis and make investment recommendations on a real estate case study, which is based on an actual commercial real estate transaction.

They will present their analysis to a panel of judges, comprised of distinguished senior real estate professionals, who will determine which team has the best overall analysis and presentation. The teams will be judged not only on their investment recommendations, their approach to the problem, and their presentation skills, but also on their ability to answer and response to direct and probing questions posed by the judges.

Prize Money

The winning team will receive $6,000 and the runner‐up will receive $3,000.

Josh Barvin ’10, Andrew Gindy ’11, Taylor Quan ’10, Zied Sanhaji ’10, Amy Shyr ’10, and Li Zhang ’10 competed for Cornell, with Christopher Marshall ’11 as alternate. All are students in Cornell’s new minor in real estate. The team was coached by Judi Brownell, professor of organizational communication, and Dan Quan, Cornell’s Singapore Tourism Board Professor of Real Estate Finance in the School of Hotel Administration. Daniel Lebret, visiting assistant professor of real estate finance, and Crocker Liu, the Robert A. Beck Professor of Hospitality Financial Management, also advised the team.