A team from York University, located in Toronto, won first place in the Impact Investing in Commercial Real Estate competition, with a University of Miami the team takes second place and competitors from the University of Florida come in third. York University’s victory in April marked the first time non-US students had triumphed in the annual commercial real estate impact investing (CRE) competition.
“The goal of the competition is to teach students to be transformative in corporate real estate development,” said Andrea Heuson, professor of finance at Miami Herbert, who oversees the accelerated MBA program in real estate. “We want them to understand that you can create impactful projects if you lay the foundations right. »
The Impact Investing in Commercial Real Estate competition is an annual event that takes place eight times. It was hosted by the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School and sponsored by Miami Herbert’s Real Estate Advisory Council. In addition to subsidizing travel and lodging for participating students, the Real Estate Advisory Council generated a $25,000 cash prize that was shared among the three winners of the 2024 competition.
There were 14 applications to this year’s Commercial Real Estate Impact Investing competition, from eight schools. Real estate professionals associated with Miami Herbert reviewed the competition entries and also judged the event.
York University winner Bianca Gornik, who is pursuing a master’s degree in real estate and infrastructure, said she and her colleagues “believed we had a realistic chance of placing in the top three.” Our development is a purpose-built, mixed-use rental development located on transit-connected land and less than a 10-minute walk to York University. The project creates a unique impact investment opportunity, through the provision of affordable housing, socially conscious commercial tenants and sustainability certifications.
Miami University was represented by Daniel Cutimanco, a master’s student, as well as David Flaxer and Nicolas Montana, both working on a master’s degree in real estate development and urban planning. Their fourth teammate was Joshua Simpson, who currently works for a commercial real estate company in Pinecrest and had entered the competition before earning his accelerated MBA in real estate in fall 2023.
The University of Miami team focused on the Northside area, an underdeveloped area northwest of downtown Miami that is transitioning from an industrial to a mixed-use designation. .
“It’s a traditionally industrial area and the properties around that area are all industrial or older houses and caravans,” Joshua Simpson explained. “So there hasn’t been any investment in this area for some time. We wanted to have something that was impactful, but we didn’t want to have something that was gentrifying at the same time.
Flaxer described the competition as “an opportunity to really work on something that I think you would encounter in the real market.” So, I felt like it was a good opportunity.
