Penn State Team Places 2nd in Mulroy Real Estate Challenge

Penn State Smeal College of Business sent two teams to the 13th Annual Mulroy Real Estate Challenge, hosted by Villanova University's Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate on April 1st, 2022 in Philadelphia, PA. One Penn State team placed 2nd, claiming $3,000 in prize money. The team consisted of senior real estate students, Thomas Bennett, Colin Morrison, Alex Karanikolas and junior, Collin Stevenson. Penn State's second team, which made it to the semi final round, included senior, Ty Dillman and juniors, Brennan Pearson, Mike Ro, and Jared Hicks.

Team 1 competitors for the Case Competition.

A team of four Penn State Smeal College of Business undergraduate students combined to earn second place in the 13th Annual Mulroy Real Estate Challenge, a national real-estate-development case competition hosted by Villanova University’s Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate.

Senior real estate students Thomas Bennett, Colin Morrison, Alex Karanikolas and junior Collin Stevenson (shown right) claimed $3,000 in prize money.  A team from the Virginia Tech took first place and a team from the University of Georgia claimed third.

Team 2 competitors for the Case Competition.

Another team from Smeal (shown left), which included senior Ty Dillman and juniors Brennan Pearson, Mike Ro, and Jared Hicks, advanced to the semifinals. Penn State Smeal was the only school to have two teams advance that far.

The competition, which was held on April 1st in Philadelphia, attracted 28 teams from 23 different universities. The case assignment involved a 162 ground-up development site in Tampa, FL. Students were assigned the task of creating and pitching a mixed-use development plan, market analysis, and financing plan to judges from the commercial real estate industry.

Remarkably, Penn State has achieved notable success on this national platform in recent years.  PSU took first place in 2019 and 3rd place in 2021.  Further, each participating school may enter up to two teams of 4 students each year in this development case competition.  Since inception of the current format four years ago, Penn State is the only program in the country to advance both of its teams to the sweet 16 semifinal round in any given year.  Penn State has accomplished this distinction four years in a row.  This speaks to our high-quality students and their dedication to learning and achievement.  This is also a clear reflection of the growing success of the Institute, its Advisory Board commitment, alumni support for experiential learning, Real Estate Bootcamp, ARGUS training, and our outstanding faculty team. 

Penn State Smeal students who compete in real estate case competitions are selected from an ongoing elective course offered by the Department of Risk Management in coordination with Smeal’s Institute of Real Estate Studies, Risk Management 497A: Real Estate Case Competition Course. The course is taught by Steve Bisbee, adjunct instructor of real estate finance and a 2006 Penn State MBA graduate.