Real Estate

Team ”Capital City Investment Group,” consisting of four Columbia Business School students, placed second in the invitation-only UNC Real Estate Development Challenge held on February 14-15 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In doing so, they improved upon last year's third-place finish by the School’s team and continued the momentum following the School’s victory at the National Real Estate Challenge at Austin in the fall.

Professor Lynne B. Sagalyn presented the paper “Entertainment Centers and the Quest for Transformation in the Periphery” with Amanda Johnson at the University of Amsterdam’s master class workshop, “Explaining Metropolitan Transformation: Politics, Functions, and Symbols,” January 24-25 in the Netherlands.

MBA student Annie Koo ’14 has been awarded the Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association of New York 2012 Scholarship.

MBA Real Estate Program students Matthew Giammanco ’13, Jeffrey Organisciak ’13, and Andrew Stone ’13 won the top Alexander Bodini Foundation Prize at the Real Estate Project Class Final Presentations Competition and Awards Dinner at Columbia Business School on December 12.

The fifth annual Real Estate Symposium took place on December 4, 2012, at Columbia University’s Faculty House, with more than 180 alumni representing classes from 1961 to 2012. David E. Simon ’85, Chairman and CEO, Simon Property Group, delivered the keynote address.

The closing panel for all Symposium attendees centered on how some of the largest and most active institutional real estate investors think about allocating capital. Serving as moderator, Professor Sagalyn continually asked about approaches to real estate investing and what criteria shaped decision-making. Speaking to these issues were three panelists whose companies collectively manage tens of billions of dollars in real estate.

Dean Hubbard opened the fifth annual Columbia Business School Real Estate Symposium by reminding the audience of the important place real estate maintains in the broader economy. Opening the keynote address, David Simon noted his surprise at the rapid recovery from the crisis, particularly for retail real estate assets.

"Consolidating and Recapitalizing Real Estate Businesses" brought together highly accomplished professionals from across the real estate industry in a good-humored and wide-ranging discussion on the sector at large.

The panel "Real Estate Development in New York City in the Digital Age" addressed the current state of the development market and how an infusion of tech firms into the local marketplace has altered the equation for real estate executives.

"Special Servicing—360 Degrees" panelists discussed the evolution, current state, and future challenges of the special servicing industry.