UW Real Estate Club Spring Trip: Boston

On March 14-16, twenty-five students from the Real Estate Club (and Club adviser Sharon McCabe) headed east to tour the Boston market. The trip started with a networking event at The Hampshire House (you may know it as the Cheers bar) on Wednesday night, where students were able to interact with local area alums in addition to those in town for the PREA conference. We were also able to host some prospective students that lived in the area.

Thursday morning started with meetings at Jones Lang LaSalle and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, providing students with an overview of the Boston market. We then moved on to a property tour of One Federal, a Class A office building undergoing a $19M renovation, that was organized by alum Brian Berry. Afterwards, students lunched at the historic Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market before heading off by bus to East Cambridge. Peter Calkins of Forest City walked us through his company's collaboration with MIT in developing a unique mixed-use research park serving the city's life science industry. From there, the bus tour continued throughout the city, viewing new developments as they made their into the Seaport district. Alum Jake Maliel set up a tour of One Marina Park Dr. with CBRE, a newly completed building overlooking the Boston harbor. We learned about the area's goal to become the 'Innovation District,' highlighted by Vertex's 1.1M square foot lease signed in the area last year. After finishing the tour, the group met local alums for a seafood dinner at Legal Sea Foods -a Boston institution.

Friday morning started right where we left off, touring the Liberty Hotel. This unique redevelopment project was completed in 2007, after serving nearly 150 years as a Suffolk County jail. Students then got on 'The T' to tour the newly renovated Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Alum Paul Gilbert, an overseer of the Museum, organized the tour of the $100M+ expansion, discussing in detail the design and financing of the new building.

The trip proved to be a great success, and many students were able to stay in town for the weekend's St. Patrick's Day festivities. Much thanks to Jill Hatton and Bob Schneiders for being intimately involved in the planning process, in addition to alums Kevin Wall, Peter Tedesco, Bruce Guenther, Jeff Herscott, Laura Miller, and Jason Rothenberg and Graaskamp Executive Director Mike Brennan for attending the week's events.

Real estate alum Jake Wood, co-founder of Team Rubicon, to speak at Dec. 18 Commencement

MADISON - Jake Wood, president of Team Rubicon, a nonprofit veterans' service organization that he co-founded following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, will speak at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's 2011 mid-year commencement.

Commencement ceremonies will be held at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 18, at the Kohl Center, 601 W. Dayton St. No tickets are required for admission and the ceremonies are open to the public.

Wood's organization provides military veterans with purpose, community and self worth through volunteer service, and gives them the opportunity to use their skills in disaster zones.

The organization aided tornado victims in Joplin, Mo. in May. Team Rubicon plans to begin operating out of 10 U.S. geographic regions in 2012, each carved out according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's regional model.

Wood, a UW-Madison graduate, served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 2007, he was deployed to Iraq's Anbar Province and in 2008 to Afghanistan's Helmand Valley. He is a leading advocate for veterans and speaks around the country about issues they face on their return home. He also serves on several veteran-focused committees at the national level.

Wood received his bachelor of business administration degree in 2005 with a double major in real estate and urban land economics, and political science. He was an offensive lineman on the Badger football team from 2001-04. Last year, he was honored with a "Forward Under 40" award from the Wisconsin Alumni Association.

This year Wood received GQ Magazine's "Better Men, Better World" award, and the Big Ten Conference honored him with its "Live Big" award for his work with Team Rubicon.
- Liz Beyler, (608) 263-1986, lbkraak@wisc.edu

Wisconsin MBA is hitting the road

The Wisconsin MBA program is hitting the road, participating in MBA forums around the country and-for the first time-across the Atlantic in London (this Thursday!).

This year we are participating in the Kaplan Road to Business School and the QS World MBA Tour in cities including London, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, LA, Boston, DC, New York, Minneapolis, and Salt Lake City.

So come to a forum in a town near you, meet with us, and find out how you can put our unique specialized MBA to your advantage. Wisconsin Real Estate alumni will be on hand in several cities to talk about their experience in our program and answer your questions.

Visit our Facebook page for the complete list of cities and dates. Then say hi to Erin and Maria when you see them!

Women in Real Estate

Meet Our Current Students, a continuing series featuring some of our first-year real estate MBA students:

It seems there are more men than women working for the real estate industry. How do women survive under the complex and competitive environment and make some self-achievement? I’ve worked for this industry for seven years before I came to business school for an MBA in real estate, and it had been a question bothering me for a long time. However, with the help and communication of the alumni and the faculty of Graaskamp Center, it seems not so difficult to find an answer.

Last semester, in connection with the Wisconsin Real Estate Biennial Conference, alumni Jill Hatton held a special welcome reception for women in real estate. Jill has worked in various leadership positions in the real estate investment advisory business and is a board member at the University of Wisconsin Foundation. It was the first time I had attended a meeting with so many women in real estate. I talked with several women alumni, and they shared with me their stories of life, career and family. Many of them have a very balanced life, enjoying the career success and family life. The meeting with them led me to redefine success for women in real estate. That is to keep a balance for work and life.

Meeting with alumni Pam Boneham helped me learn more about women in leadership in the real estate industry. Pam is the Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for RREEF Real Estate Investment Management. She shared with us her career development at RREEF. She said there might be more difficulties for women to stand out and take lead. However, women had their own advantages in career advancement. Women are more willing to listen, which puts them at an easier position for communication and get more information. The most important thing is always being confident and sticking to your dream.

I’ve learned a lot and understood more about the industry in the past six months, although I am still looking for the perfect answer. Learning in the business school is helping me to be prepared for the real estate dreams.

Julia Xia is a first-year MBA student in the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate. Formerly a real estate consultant and asset manager in Beijing, Julia graduated from Peking University with a bachelor's degree in finance and banking.

Chicago alumni happy hour

Please join Wisconsin Business Alumni for the annual Chicago Alumni Happy Hour. Network with fellow Business School alumni and cheer on the Badger men's basketball team as they take on the Indiana Hoosiers (game time is 8:00 pm).

Thursday, March 3
7:30 pm
Will's Northwoods Inn
3030 N Racine, Chicago

Thanks to our generous hosts (including a couple of real estate alums), this event is FREE, but registration is required. Click here to register.

San Diego is the place to be for CREF11

Happening February 6-9 is the Mortgage Bankers Association's Commercial Real Estate Finance/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo 2011. It's definitely a "must-attend event" for commercial/multifamily finance industry professionals, and Wisconsin Real Estate alumni are always well-represented.

The Graaskamp Center and the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association (WREAA) are hosting a little networking event for all our Wisconsin family and friends!

When: Monday, February 7, 2011, 5:00 P.M.-7:00 P.M.
Where: Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, Room Ford C, Third Level

Attending WREAA members are encouraged to bring a guest. You must attend the MBA CREF conference to attend the reception. The conference badge is required for entry.

To RSVP: Contact Tracy Wundrow (tracy.wundrow at wreaa.org)

Hope to see you there!

WREAA Minnesota Region: Block E Presentation & Happy Hour

Please join the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association (WREAA) for a presentation by Phillip Jaffe from Alatus LLC on his firm’s July 2010 acquisition of the Block E entertainment complex located in the Minneapolis central business district. Block E includes 213,000 square feet of space as well as 550 underground parking spaces. The project was originally developed in 2001 and included a substantial investment by the City of Minneapolis. The area has undergone significant changes with the opening of the new Twins Stadium.

Block E is the name of a block in downtown Minneapolis bounded by Hennepin Avenue, 6th Street, 7th Street, and 1st Avenue North. It is part of the Downtown West neighborhood in Minneapolis. It is one block south of the Warehouse District/Hennepin Avenue light rail station on the Hiawatha Line. (Wikipedia)

When: Tuesday, February 8, 2011, 3:00 PM

Where: Kieran's Pub (located within Block E)
601 1st Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55403

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Free for 2011 WREAA Members
$30 for Non-Members
Includes Presentation, Happy Hour & Appetizers

To RSVP: Contact Tracy Wundrow (tracy.wundrow@wreaa.org)

Friday speaker series: Brad Olsen, Atlantic Partners

Meet Our Current Students is a continuing series of blog posts from first-year real estate MBAs in the Graaskamp Center. Here, they share their unique perspectives on the school, the real estate program and more--from the inside. This week, Ben Schmidt shares his thoughts on the first session of our spring semester Friday speaker series:

In just a few weeks, I and the other first-year real estate MBA students will be heading to France to attend the international property conference MIPIM. As part of our preparations for the upcoming trip, both the Global Real Estate Master students and the real estate MBAs had the privilege of hearing from Brad Olsen, founder of Atlantic Partners, Ltd., regarding his observations on current global real estate markets.

Brad has been a friend of the Graaskamp Center for many years and works with global real estate firms looking to invest in the United States. Brad has also been an active participant in MIPIM since nearly its inception.

Brad shared with us his thoughts on global capital flows. Not surprisingly, his outlook was also reflected in the recent survey of members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) conducted by the Graaskamp Center: that many foreign investors are looking toward the U.S. as a market in which to invest their capital. But Brad also observed increased investments in Asia and Latin America.

He gave us some insights on possible future sources of foreign capital. In his opinion, Asia is going to be a big source, but not just from China and India. South Korea, Malaysia and even Japan (despite the resources needed to support its aging population) are all making significant real estate investments. And because of smart decisions made in the past 5-10 years, there is capital available to invest. On the European front, Scandinavia represents an interesting potential source of capital, as they become active investors.

When it comes to UW alumni operating on the global stage, Wisconsin alumnus Wenzel Hoburg, Vice President of Real Estate Investments for CPP Investment Board in Canada (and also a member of the advisory board for the Global Real Estate Master program), has been perhaps the single-most active real estate investor globally in past 2 years. It just goes to show that world of Wisconsin real estate is a small one, indeed.

Ben Schmidt is a first year real estate MBA who came to Wisconsin from Indiana by way of Chicago, where he practiced as a corporate attorney. Prior to practicing law, Ben obtained both his B.S. in finance and his J.D. from Indiana University-Bloomington. Upon completion of the real estate program, Ben plans to pursue either a development or policy role with relation to residential real estate.

Real Estate and Badgers Football

Excitement on campus is high as the UW Badgers football team prepares for its 2011 appearance at the Rose Bowl. As the semester winds down, alumni, students and fans are busily making plans to watch the game. Tickets may be hard to come by, but that hasn't dampened the enthusiasm. It's the seventh trip to Pasadena in school history, and the team's first time since 2000.

All the talk about Badgers football reminded us of Wisconsin Real Estate's football connection through real estate graduate and current Cleveland Browns tackle Joe Thomas. Thomas graduated in 2007 with a B.S. in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics and was subsequently drafted by the Browns.

We looked back in our news archives to June 2007 for an interview we did with Thomas talking about his interest in real estate, what he got out of the program, and his strong work ethic. Here is an excerpt:

What did you like about real estate?

“I think real estate is more hands-on than a lot of other majors. You’re doing a lot more stuff in the field, not so much sitting in a cubicle or at a desk. And just about everybody is affected by it. Anybody who plans on owning a house, it’s such a big advantage to take a real estate class, and to be able to know about a mortgage, what your best options are when buying a house or looking for property.”

What real estate classes did you take, and were they challenging?

“I took Real Estate Process, with Sharon McCabe; Valuation and Appraisal, also with Sharon; Urban & Land Economics, with Morris Davis; Finance, with François Ortalo-Magné; and Residential Development, with Tom Landgraf.

“To me, the whole real estate program just makes sense. A lot of people who are really good at math say that it makes sense to them, and that’s kind of how real estate is to me. It's like a puzzle; everything fits together. It’s not just memorizing it, you just understand it.”

What else did you like about the real estate program?

“The networking and connections that you make. That’s part of the reason why this is the number 1 program in the country: you are involved with different groups, you do projects with each other, you form great friendships. The people you meet here are the people who are going to help you get a job down the line.”

To read the rest of the interview with Thomas, click through to our News Archive.

The Wisconsin Real Estate Program publishes a monthly newsletter with information on real estate events, activities and more. To receive your copy, add your email address to our mailing list at Constant Contact.