PRINCIPLES & PROCESSES OF REAL ESTATE

Students:

Meghan Dieroff, Osondi Dimgba, Cole Harrity, Bryan Jackson, Michella Kobti, Joe Lilley, Juliette Metschl, Andrew Pietrantoni, Victoria Sclafani, Nina Villanueva, Yessica Vazquez

Faculty:

Term:

Course:

Program:

Matthew Roland

Fall 2022

What skills are necessary to better equip future developers as they enter professional practice? This real estate development course is intended to introduce students to the real estate profession by providing the developer’s perspective. The course examines the principles and processes of development through history, financial analysis, portfolio management, and more, and students develop the skills to apply these ideas in their own neighborhoods.

Working in two teams for the duration of the semester, students applied their knowledge through the Urban Plan Case Study. This engaging design workshop was meant to teach the fundamental forces that affect land use development within our communities, and in this case, the Elmwood district on Buffalo’s West Side. The course was set up as a competition, with each team competing for the request for proposal, or RFP, from a mock City Council.

Urban Plan workshop provided a realistic taste of what development is like in communities and allowed us to conceptualize material we learned in class."

Each student held a specific role within their respective teams; this included a site planner, financial advisor, marketing advisor, city liaison, or neighborhood liaison. The competition style compelled students to break out of the box of theoretical and ideological understandings of land use development and apply their design work to a realistic and purposeful scenario.

Envisioning a district as a space where residents could live, work, and access leisure activities drove students’ efforts. The class conducted an in-depth analysis of the provided site plan, paying close attention to block use, and then developed a strategy to incorporate feedback from neighborhood organizations into the final proposal. One team focused on designing for a sustainable environment through equity in affordable housing, the resiliency of green space, and how their design could encourage walking and biking as a step towards climate protection. Another team took the approach of creating a new district plan based on the achievements of the community, encouraging philanthropic involvement.

The teams learned to be critical of land use issues plaguing the Elmwood district through meetings with land use professionals. Topics of affordable housing, net zero energy, gentrification, tax impacts, and financial viability were brought to light and thoroughly discussed during the Urban Plan exercise. The culmination of the course was the selection by the City Council of a winning team to proceed with the hypothetical project.