Spring/Summer '19 Harvard Student Real Estate Programming Update

August 22, 2019

Dear Board Members,

The board's student-facing program for the 2018/2019 academic year will come to a close later this week. The depth and breadth of this programming reaffirmed the board's commitment to Harvard Student Real Estate Consortium (HSREC)-affiliated schools, the College, the Graduate School of Design, and the Business, Law, and Kennedy Schools. Through each member's generosity of both time and resources, the board accomplished and, indeed, substantially exceeded its goal of offering creative programming and experiential learning opportunities for the University's real estate students. 

A special thanks is extended to those members that gave at the Corporate and Sustainer levels during the 2018/2019 fiscal year. These gifts allowed the board to continue to grow its strong foundation of student-focused signature programing. Donors include Chuck Berman, Michael Colacino, Stuart Jones, and Richard Kessler, whose gifts supported programming during the first semester of the year. Additionally, we are grateful to Reggie Graham, Brian Ward, Henry Miller III, Kris Miller, Brooks Holstein, and Philip Wall, whose donations allowed the board to host a comprehensive calendar of student programming during throughout the year. Highlights that demonstrate the depth of the spring and summer HSREC community programming are outlined below.

Summer Community Service Fellowships
Sponsors: Reggie Graham, MArch '78, Maharger Development, and
Brian Ward, PLDA '18, Trimont Real Estate Advisers
The latest addition to the board's programming is the introduction of funding for Summer Community Service Fellowships (SCSF), a program run through the Phillips Brooks House at Harvard College. Board-funded fellowships provide current Harvard undergraduates the opportunity to devote their summers to exploring issues that affect the built environment in the public sector. Through SCSF, the board provides fellows stipends to offset summer salary costs, allowing the nonprofit or government agency the student is working with to benefit from the help of a Harvard undergraduate without enduring the associated costs.

Of the five applications received, the committee made up of board members Stuart Jones (AB '77) and Fernando Levy-Hara (AMDP '09) awarded fellowships to Piper Winkler (AB '21) and Brandon Boise (AB '22), who are working with the Detroit Planning and Development Department and Habitat for Humanity, Los Angeles, respectively. We will hear more about the scope and impact of both Piper's and Brandon's work during the fall board meeting.

Employment Portal
Sponsor: Brooks Holstein, AMDP '05, Comvest Properties, LLC
Launched to address Harvard students' most commonly expressed need, the Employment Portal is an online job and internships platform. This tool hosts permanent, part-time, and summer public- and private-sector real estate positions, allowing students to efficiently identify firms that are recruiting, as well as to obtain summer and full-time employment.

Peer-to-Peer Networking Mixers
Sponsor: Wayne Barwise, MAUD '85, Cadillac Fairview
Given the silos that exist between all of the HSREC schools, the University's real estate cohort has little time or opportunity to network among themselves. HSREC peer-to-peer networking events give students the chance to gather and engage with one another, making new connections and building deeper inroads toward building robust networks that serve students both during their time at the University and throughout their career.

ARGUS Enterprise Training
Sponsor: Kris Miller, AB '87, Ackerman & Co.
The final in a series of on-campus HSREC trainings for the 2018/2019 academic year, ARGUS Enterprise training is a must-attend for all real-estate-minded students. This two-day training, which combines lectures with hands-on exercises, gives students the opportunity to begin their ARGUS certification, an important credential for all students seeking employment in the real estate industry.

Real Estate Career Treks
The most well-attended piece of experiential learning that is offered by the board, real estate career treks bring students from each of the HSREC schools together to gain exposure to a broad range of firms and asset types in a specific geography. Among the most popular are the New York and Boston treks.

New York Real Estate Career Trek
Sponsor: Henry S. Miller III, AMDP '02, Henry S. Miller Sustainable Partners, LLC
In early February, students gathered in New York to participate in the second New York Career Trek of the 2018/2019 academic year. Those student participants took a deeper dive into New York's real estate ecosystem by visiting services, development, and private equity firms, including the offices of board members Brian Ward (PLDA '18) of Trimont Real Estate Advisers, Evan Linkner (ALM '09, MDes Real Estate '11) of Ackman-Ziff, and Thorsten Kiefer (MArch '04) of HFZ Capital Group.

Boston Real Estate Career Trek
Sponsor: Philip Wall, MCRP '81, Colorado Pacific Holdings
The last in a series of treks during the 2018-2019 academic year, the Boston Real Estate Career Trek focused on the city's Seaport neighborhood. Including students from each of the HSREC-affiliated schools, this event gave students the chance to tour active development sites, including Tishman Speyer's Pier Four and Cottonwood Management's Echelon.

In addition to the programming outlined above, the board provided a Leadership-level gift in support of the student-run Harvard Real Estate Weekend. A multiday event that has become the cornerstone of the student experience, the weekend drew over 500 students and professionals from around the world. A key component of the weekend is the Real Estate Venture Competition (REVC), a showcase for entrepreneurial students and recent graduates with the potential to materially impact the real estate industry through innovative business strategy and creative execution. The REVC would not be possible without the generous support of Sam Plimpton (MBA '77, MArch '80) and The Baupost Group LLC.

Finally, I am excited to announce that Julie Perlman (MDes Real Estate '13) has assumed the role of HSREC Chair, a position initially held by Matt Ciccotti (MDes Real Estate '15). During his tenure, Matt, who served as the board's inaugural HSREC Chair, worked diligently with student leadership to create and promote a comprehensive calendar of programming, driving the board's early successes vis-a-vis student engagement. Please join me in welcoming Julie and thanking Matt (now the board's treasurer) for his service.

On behalf of the cohort of HSREC students, thank you all for your continued dedication to real estate at Harvard. Your support of student efforts has been essential in creating a vibrant and collaborative student real estate community.

With best wishes,

Cynthia

Cynthia Henshall
Executive Director
Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board

Fall/Winter '18 Harvard Student Real Estate Consortium Programming

January 15, 2019

Dear Board Members,

As we turn the page on the first semester of the 2018/2019 academic year, the board’s impact on Harvard Student Real Estate Consortium (HSREC)-affiliated students from the College, the Graduate School of Design, and the Business, Law, and Kennedy Schools continues. We are excited to report that the student real estate community's response to the board-sponsored programming has garnered excitement and growth.

HSREC programming is provided entirely through board support. Such events provide essential support for students to broaden and achieve their academic and professional goals. We would like to give our sincere thanks to each of you for your continued commitment to Harvard’s real estate students - participating in on-campus lectures, opening your offices to treks, participating in informational interviews, graciously sharing your networks, and beyond. We would like to extend a special thank-you to the board's Corporate- and Sustainer-level givers, including Stuart Jones, Michael Colacino, Chuck Berman, Brain Ward, and Richard Kessler, whose generous contributions have made the board’s ambitious Fall 2018 calendar of HSREC programming possible. Highlights are outlined below.

Building a Career in Real Estate
Sponsor: Stuart Jones, AB '77, American Brownfields Corp.
As students settled in to academic year, board-sponsored HSREC programming began with a new addition to the event calendar, "Building a Career in Real Estate." This standing-room-only workshop was led by board member Kristen Hunter (AB '92, MDes Real Estate '10) and Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty member Frank Apeseche. The event was launched in response to a direct request from the HSREC community to provide students an in-depth understanding of various sectors in the industry, the building blocks to develop a powerful resume, and strategies to forge a successful career in real estate.

Real Estate Career Treks
Real Estate Career Treks focus on bringing students to visit, make direct connections with, and learn about business models and market conditions from industry leaders in specific geographies. With more interest among students than a trek can accommodate, the 2018/2019 academic year marks the first instance when the board will offer treks to Boston and New York during both the fall and spring semesters.

Boston Real Estate Career Trek
Sponsor: Michael Colacino, AB '79, Savills Studley
The Boston Trek was an exceptional opportunity for HSREC participants to gain in-depth insight and expand their networks within Boston’s real estate community. Students gained a deeper understanding of the landscape of Boston’s real estate community by visiting alumni at a mix of private equity firms and developers. Stops included Bain Capital, TA Realty, Boston Properties, Leggat McCall, Related-Beal, and Samuels & Associates.

New York Real Estate Career Trek
Sponsor: Chuck Berman, MBA '79, BedRock Real Estate Partners, LLC
Real-estate immersion in New York City gave HSREC attendees a better sense of New York’s real estate ecosystem and the chance to visit with several board members. Onay Payne (AB '97, MBA '03) and Donald Sheets (MBA '06) at Clarion Partners, David Himmel (MBA '14) at Jamestown, Michael Krupa (MBA '89) of Gemdale USA took students for a tour of OMA-designed 121 East 22nd - a joint venture between Gemdale and Fred Cooper (MPP '84), Toll Brothers, Inc. Students also visited Harvard alumni at the offices of Tishman Speyer, Cadre, Hines, and OTO Development.

Alumni/Student Networking Reception
Sponsor: Brain Ward, Trimont Real Estate Advisors
At the conclusion of the New York Career Trek, over 75 students, board members, and alums gathered for a lively networking reception. A student favorite, the reception gives students the opportunity to make connection, build on existing relationships, and gain exposure to prospective employers in the city that houses the largest number of Harvard alums working in real estate.

Real Estate Financial Modeling
Sponsor: Richard Kessler, AMDP '02, Beneson Capital Partners
The first in a series of on-campus student-facing trainings for the 2018/2019 academic year, the Real Estate Financial Modeling training combines lectures with hands-on exercises to help students advance their financial modeling knowledge, tools, and skills to successfully model transactions.

The balance of the Fall's HSREC programming included sold-out real-estate treks to Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore,  spirited bimonthly peer-to-peer mixers, mentoring breakfasts, and resume reviews, as well as financial support for a student team to compete in the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council's Inaugural Debt Case Competition in New York.

On behalf of the student real-estate community, thank you for your continued generosity.

All the best in the New Year!

Matt Ciccotti, MDes Real Estate '15
Chair, Harvard Student Real Estate Consortium
Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board
mc@livwrk.com

Cynthia Henshall
Executive Director
Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board
cynthiah@harvardareb.org

Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board – Student Programming Spring ‘18

June 6, 2018

Dear Board Members,

The Spring semester of the 2017/2018 academic year was busy and productive for the Harvard Student Real Estate Consortium (HSREC)–affiliated schools, the College, the Graduate School of Design, and the Business, Law, and Kennedy Schools. The board’s calendar of student programming touched hundreds of Harvard students and added depth and breadth to the board’s student-facing mission of enhancing the experience of those studying real estate at the University. Highlights of the second semester include:

Harvard/MIT Real Estate Career Day
Sponsor: Chuck Berman, MBA ’79, BedRock Real Estate Partners
A collaboration between the Center for Real Estate at MIT, the board, and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Real Estate Career Day is curated to expose students to the diversity of employment opportunities in the real estate sector, while giving students the chance to ask questions of and network with alumni of both universities working in the industry.
 

ARGUS Training
Sponsor: Brian Coulter, MBA ’86, JBG Smith
The ARGUS Workshop, part of the board’s skills-based training, combines lectures with hands-on experience and is intended to complement Harvard’s real estate curriculum. Beyond traditional skills-based learning, the workshop provides the opportunity for students from across campus to engage in peer-to-peer networking, allowing those in attendance to forge and expand relationships with fellow students from diverse disciplines and build robust networks that will serve them both in their time at the University and during their careers in the real estate industry.

Student/Alumni-Practitioner Dinners
Sponsor: Stuart Jones, AB ’77, American Brownfields Corp.
Alumni working in real estate are invited to campus to act as catalysts for conversation and provide face-to-face mentorship. Practitioners are encouraged to detail how their time at the University prepared them for working in the industry, describe their career trajectories, and speak to specific projects. Students ask questions as the speakers narrate their experiences (good and bad). The guidance offered by alums — who understand, through firsthand experience, the issues and concerns students face — is invaluable to the students in attendance.

Office Hours and Employment Portal
Sponsor: Kris Miller, AB ’87, Ackerman & Co.
Both Office Hours and the Employment Portal are programming elements that the board piloted during the 2017/2018 academic year. Office Hours allow students to meet with the Executive Director of the board to find solutions to issues facing them and to converse about board-related programming, including internships, full-time employment, and HSREC educational and networking events.

The Employment Portal was launched to respond to the students’ most commonly expressed need, jobs, and internships in the real estate industry. This hub, a valuable resource for students, hosts searchable permanent, part-time, and summer public- and private-sector real estate positions, allowing students studying for careers in real estate to efficiently identify companies that are recruiting candidates for summer internships and post-graduation employment.

The impact of this programming is felt across campus. Students are excited and grateful for the extracurricular programming the board provides and the real estate community that the board has helped foster. Harvard student real estate–related programming would not be possible without the board. On behalf of HSREC, we would like to thank each of you for your continued generosity. We would like to give a special thanks to Chuck, Brian, Stuart, and Kris for their generous Sustainer-Level gifts that helped to underwrite this programming.

If there are any questions, thoughts, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Matt Ciccotti, MDes Real Estate ’15                                    Cynthia Henshall
Chair, Harvard Student Real Estate Consortium                Executive Director
Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board                                     Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board
 

Harvard Student Real Estate Financial Modeling Workshop

Building on the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board’s mission of enhancing the experience of real estate students at the University, last month the board offered a Microsoft Excel-based workshop through Real Estate Financial Modeling (REFM), a trusted modeling tutorial company. The first in a series of student-facing trainings for the 2017/2018 academic year, this class brought together over 70 students from the Harvard Student Real Estate Consortium (HSREC)–affiliated schools, the College, the Graduate School of Design, and the Business, Law, and Kennedy Schools to participate in this two-day workshop.

REFM joined us in Cambridge to teach this 16-hour course that combined lectures with hands-on exercises. The course began with fundamentals of using Microsoft Excel for modeling, with an emphasis on those formulas, shortcuts, and strategies most applicable to discounted cash flow analysis. As the course progressed, students put these skills to use in a case study format, with financial modeling exercises based on hypothetical real estate development scenarios. Students learned how to model unlevered and levered property-level cash flows for a mixed-use development as well as waterfall cash flows for an equity joint venture for an individual property transaction.

The training was an exceptional opportunity for University students to take a deeper dive into modeling—enhancing their classroom learning in this arena. Beyond traditional skills-based learning, workshops provide the opportunity for students from across campus to engage in peer-to-peer networking. The workshop allowed those in attendance to forge and expand relationships with fellow students from diverse disciplines and build strong networks that will serve them through their tenures both as students and as alumni of Harvard.

Andrew Wade, MDes Real Estate and the Built Environment ’18, a participant in the REFM training, explains the value of the modeling workshop from the student’s viewpoint: “The real estate financial modeling workshop gave me exposure to what potential employers might expect in an interview test, going beyond the minimum requirements to give me a competitive advantage. It also allowed me to network with students entering real estate from across the graduate schools and the College, many of whom remain friends and collaborators. The workshop is invaluable in setting the bar of expected financial modeling proficiency in the professional world, and in giving us the resources needed to exceed those expectations.” 

Extracurricular programing such as REFM are meaningful features of the board’s calendar of student programming. On behalf of the student participants, we would like to thank each of you for your continued generosity. Special thanks to Wayne Barwise, MUAD ’85, for his generous Sustainer-Level gift that helped to underwrite this training.
 

Harvard Student Boston Real Estate Career Trek

Central to the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board’s mission is enhancing the experience of real estate students at the University. The student-facing piece of our mission is timely; the University is seeing blockbuster enrollment in the real estate arena, and the real estate clubs’ membership numbers are at an all-time high. The board has created and funded a full calendar of real estate–related programming to further these student-facing objectives. An important facet of this programming – student real estate career treks.

Late last month, a group of over 30 students from the Harvard Student Real Estate Consortium (HSREC) affiliated schools – the College, Graduate School of Design, Business, Law, and Kennedy Schools – gathered to participate in a trek to the Christian Science Center redevelopment. Given the broad range of interests represented by the students involved in HSREC, when selecting a project for a trek, we are thoughtful about including a range of sectors. We hope both to capture a large variety of students and to give students the opportunity to gain substantive knowledge about sectors and career paths while reinforcing the multidisciplinary nature of real estate. Given this goal, we chose to include five diverse companies involved in the project: the Christian Science Real Estate Team; Leggat McCall Properties (LMP), who created the master plan; Mintz-Levin, the project’s attorneys; and two of the developers, Pritzker Realty Trust and Beacon Capital Partners.

Over the course of the three-hour trek, students met with senior members of the four groups involved in the first phase of the redevelopment. The Christian Science Real Estate Team led students on a tour of the century-old mixed-use complex that includes ten buildings set within a large plaza that incorporates over 10 acres of privately owned but publicly accessible space. The Christian Science Real Estate Team revealed to students that the aging campus was leading to ballooning maintenance costs of over 25 million dollars yearly, more than a quarter of the Church’s annual budget. To help decrease this burden, the Church turned to Boston-based LMP to create a master plan to capitalize on the Church’s wealth of real estate holdings while keeping key elements of the historic campus intact.

LMP leadership detailed for students how the first phase of the master plan was conceived and executed, including dramatically increased floor area through land sales, ground leases, new construction, renovation of existing structures, and major alterations to public space. While LMP laid the groundwork for the design of the master plan, members of Mintz-Levin detailed how they charted the course for the redevelopment through public approvals with the City of Boston, a process that involved the creation of multiple distinct plans over 20 years.

Students next met with two developers currently working on the site, Pritzker Realty Trust and Beacon Capital Partners. Pritzker purchased a piece of the original parcel, a surface parking lot, which is now one of the City’s most expensive rental buildings. Beacon Capital Partners entered a ground lease on an architecturally significant, I. M. Pei–designed office tower. Each of the developers gave an overview of their company and provided students with background and a tour of their project. They also shared an overview of the projects’ financials and of lessons learned while working on their respective projects. A lively conversation and Q&A session followed each developer’s presentation.

As the contingent of students studying real estate at Harvard continues to expand, so has the demand for real estate–related programming and engagement. Through real estate career treks, like the visit to the Christian Science redevelopment, the board allows students involved in HSREC to build on their classroom learning while expanding their knowledge of the diverse settings for employment and the scope of skills critical to the day-to-day work each highlighted position entails. Moreover, treks are crafted with an eye toward creating opportunities for students to expand their networks and meet with practitioners to secure internships or post-graduation employment.

Harvard student real estate–related programming would not be possible without the board. On behalf of the students who participated in this trek, we would like to thank each of you for your continued generosity. We would like to give special thanks to Philip Wall, MPP ’81, for his generous Sustainer-Level gift that helped to underwrite this trek.

BOARD ARCHIVE

LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
Fall 2017

Dear Fellow Board Members,

I hope you are as excited as I am about the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board. When the board took shape 12 months ago, we committed to collaborative, interdisciplinary real estate engagement across the University. This philosophy is displayed in our dual mission: enhancing the experience of students interested in real estate at Harvard, while simultaneously creating and sustaining an engaged network of Harvard alumni in real estate to foster professional and personal growth. 

We have had great success with alumni engagement and participation. The Board now has almost 70 members, with 12 new members joining since our Spring ’17 meeting. I write today to highlight the student-facing contributions that the board has made over its first full year and to chart a course for the year ahead.

In our first year, we have made an impact through our work in conjunction with student leadership from Harvard’s real estate clubs, through the Harvard Student Real Estate Consortium (HSREC) - the unique, Harvard-wide student organization representing and creating cohesion among the University’s real estate clubs at Harvard College, Harvard’s Business School, Law School, Kennedy School and Graduate School of Design. The results of this collaboration are tangible; board programming has reached hundreds of Harvard students and Alumni. Programming includes:

•  skills-based trainings like ARGUS and Excel Financial Modeling
• mentoring opportunities with alumni through mentoring breakfasts, resume reviews and networking receptions
• peer-to-peer and alumni networking events
• funding and support for the student-run Harvard Real Estate Weekend, a symposium produced by students across the University for the real estate community

In the current academic year, we will once again offer students skills based trainings, mentoring opportunities, networking events and funding for the Harvard Real Estate Weekend. In addition, the board has hired a senior staff member to work in concert with HSREC leadership to execute a full calendar of real estate related programming to engage students and alumni. Highlights include:

• real estate career treks to the Boston area as well as other domestic and international locales
• employment negotiation workshops
•  career forums with alumni panelists
• board member student lunches
• and the November roll-out of an employment portal that will house postings for real estate jobs and internships.

These opportunities provide students with the tools and network that will bolster their success as students and practitioners. Additionally, board funded programming is a means for real estate alumni to engage with one other, students, and the University.

We will hear, in greater detail, the impact of the Board’s work with HSREC and the strides we have made toward greater alumni engagement during our upcoming board meeting. In the meantime, I want to take the opportunity to thank each of you for your service and generosity.

I would be remiss in finishing this letter without specifically thanking Kris Miller, our outgoing board chair. Kris’s strategic thinking, warmth and dedication to real estate at the University is reflected in all that the board has achieved in twelve short months.

I look forward working alongside you over the coming year.

Sincerely,

Evan Linkner, FAS ’09 GSD ‘11
Chair, Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board