Smeal Team Takes Second Place in Cornell Real Estate Competition

A team of Smeal College of Business undergraduate students finished in second place in the second annual Cornell Real Estate Case Competition, held Nov. 10-11 in New York. Smeal’s team, Prestige Worldwide, LLC, took home $3,000 as the runner up, narrowly missing out on first place to a team from New York University. Teams from Cornell University, Guelph University, Indiana University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Texas at Austin also took part in the competition, which was held at TIAA-CREF corporate headquarters in Manhattan.

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (December 2, 2010) – A team of Smeal College of Business undergraduate students finished in second place in the second annual Cornell Real Estate Case Competition, held Nov. 10-11 in New York.
Smeal’s team, Prestige Worldwide, LLC, took home $3,000 as the runner up, narrowly missing out on first place to a team from New York University. Teams from Cornell University, Guelph University, Indiana University, the University of Connecticut, and the University of Texas at Austin also took part in the competition, which was held at TIAA-CREF corporate headquarters in Manhattan.

After receiving the case, which was based on four actual commercial real estate transactions, each team had about four days to complete their analysis, create an investment strategy, and craft a PowerPoint presentation. They had 20 minutes to present their analysis to a panel of judges comprised of senior real estate professionals.
Following each presentation, team members answered questions from the judges for approximately another 20 minutes. The teams were judged on their investment recommendations, approach to the problem, and presentation skills, in addition to their ability to answer and respond to the judges’ questions.
Each member of the Smeal team was selected from the college’s real estate case studies course (R EST 497) led by Richard Button, assistant director of the Institute for Real Estate Studies, who served as the team’s faculty adviser. The team consisted of Greg Hiban, Andrew MacDonald, Adam Michalski, Corinne Penksa, Dan Sonnentag, and Joe Stunja.

For more information on the competition, including a complete list of the distinguished panel of judges and sponsors, visit www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/industry/centers/cref/education/competition.