Sauder School of Business/UBC Team bring home second win at annual Northwest Real Estate Challenge
Vancouver – For the second year in a row, a team of Sauder School of Business undergraduate students took home top honours at the annual Northwest Real Estate Challenge.
The competition, held March 29, saw three teams from the University of Washington, Portland State University and Sauder, present diverse property redevelopment proposals for a Seattle parcel of land. The competition was judged by Seattle government and industry professionals.
The Sauder team, comprised of Scarlett Duntz, Varinder Grewal, Neil Hahn, Yosh Kasahara, Hanson Ng, and Roy Parappilly, with the support of fellow student TJ Rak, successfully presented an award-winning proposal for the development of a six-acre parking lot, located north of Seattle's Q-West football field, just south of the downtown. The Sauder team proposed a mixed-use residential and retail development focused on "Stadium Living", with retail and lifestyle development oriented towards the stadium and urban living.
"The students on the Sauder team put a tremendous amount of work into creating an economically viable and creative solution for a complex and challenging site, "says Tsur Somerville, Director of the Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate at the Sauder School of Business, and Sauder team mentor. The Centre, which serves as a focal point for research and education in real estate and urban economics at UBC, fosters a number of initiatives, like this competition, that link Sauder School of Business students with the real estate community.
As part of their presentations, the students were required to address a number of restrictions relating to development of the site, including stadium and exhibition centre parking and event staging requirements, height restrictions, heritage area designation, a high water table, and the use had to be a “stadium related use”.
The event was co-presented by the Washington, Vancouver and Oregon chapters of the National Association of Office and Industrial Properties (NAIOP). The Northwest Real Estate Challenge is an annual event.
An internal competition was held at the Sauder School of Business to determine, from two groups of students, which team would represent the school at the NAIOP competition. The second group of students included Mark Chang, Charmaine Cheng, Brodie Henrichsen, Shayan Lotfi, Alex Messina, and TJ Rak. Sauder school alumni Rick Bell, Equitas; Andrew Bibby, Grosvenor; and ULE diploma holder Sandy Cruickshank, Tonko Realty Advisors, judged the Sauder competition and deemed the two teams to be essentially tied. The two Sauder teams received mentoring assistance from Doug Avis, Canada Lands; Sauder school graduate Michael Flanigan, City of Vancouver; Michael Katz, Katz Architecture; and John Scott, CEI Architecture.
About the Sauder School of Business at UBC
The Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia is Canada’s leading academic business school. Recognized globally for its contributions to management practice through its innovative research and teaching, the school is dedicated to opening worlds of opportunities for its students, alumni and associated communities. For more information on the Sauder School of Business, visit www.sauder.ubc.ca.
For more information, contact:
Leanna Yip
Director, Marketing and Communications, Sauder School of Business
604-822-0229
leanna.yip@sauder.ubc.ca