Retail Real Estate Case Competition

We are pleased to announce that Cornell University took first place in the 6th Annual ICSC & Cornell International Retail Real Estate Case Competition, hosted jointly by the International Council of Shopping Centers and the Center for Real Estate and Finance at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Congratulations goes out to the Cornell team consisting of Angad Jaspal ‘21, Angela Lu ‘22, Jai Patel ’22, and Carol Wang ‘21, who will receive the $5,000 first place prize. Second place went to KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Indiana University came in third place, collecting $3,000 and $2,000 in prize money respectively.

The Retail Real Estate Case Competition is held annually and was be a virtual event this year. This invitation-only competition welcomed undergraduate teams comprised of four students each from the top university real estate programs.

Based on an actual business transaction, each of the teams was presented with a real estate case study. Teams had five days for case analysis and preparation prior to a presentation period where teams showcased their final recommendations to a select panel of real estate industry judges.

This intense competition provided an opportunity for students to practice the skills they have learned in the classroom and showcase their talents to the leaders of the industry.

FINAL RESULTS:

1st Place: Cornell University

2nd Place: KTH Royal Institute of Technology

3rd Place: Indiana University

COMPETING TEAMS:

• Cornell University
• Indiana University
• KTH Royal Institute of Technology
• Marquette University
• Southern Methodist University
• The University of Texas at Austin
• University of Colorado Boulder
• University of Michigan
• Villanova University

PARTICIPATING JUDGES:

• Brian Betel, senior expert – Iberia Region, Activum SG
• Joe Brady III, chief executive officer – Americas, real estate, The Instant Group
• Sara Gougarty, retail business development and strategy lead, Americas, Cushman Wakefield
• Jocelyn Gubler, senior vice president – commercial land agreements, URW
• Nick Hodge, vice president, corporate real estate, The Kroger Co.
• Liz Holland, chief executive officer, Abbell
• Parham Javaheri, executive vice president – real estate and development, Life Time – Healthy Way of Life
• Kenneth Lamy, founder and chief executive officer, The Lamy Group and EXETER™ Retail DataHub
• Bryan Ley, managing director, capital markets, JLL
• Jimmy Maurin, founder and past chairman, Stirling Properties
• Beverly Ricks CLS, CRX, CSM, principal, Retail Property Solutions, LLC
• Nina Rogers, vice president of leasing – specialty centers, ShopCore Properties

Given the extraordinary circumstances of 2020, we made the difficult decision to cancel our annual ICSC & Cornell Retail Real Estate Competition. We thank everyone for your continued support and look forward to coming together for a virtual event in 2021.

Student teams present at RECon during second annual retail case competition.

The 2nd Annual Cornell ICSC International Retail Real Estate Case Competition took place in Las Vegas on May 22 at the Wynn Las Vegas during the International Council of Shopping Centers’ (ICSC) RECon. The event, jointly hosted by the Center for Real Estate and Finance and ICSC, welcomed six teams competing for the top prize of $10,000. Congratulations to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania for taking home first place in the competition. Cornell University’s team consisting of Michael Lee ’18, Albert Lin ’18, Larry Robinson ’18, and Jessica Zhang ’17 took second place. We are proud of all of the competing teams for their hard work and dedication. The time and effort that all students put into preparing for this competition was very apparent in the thoroughness of their analysis and the impressive presentations.