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July 2008
The Wharton MBA Real Estate Club had a busy year in 2007-08, with more than 200 members. The club remains an essential resource for students interested in real estate, whether as a career or as part of their personal and business endeavors. The club organized more than 70 events this year, including educational "Master Classes" such as Real Estate 101 and Real Estate Finance. The club organized Career Treks to cities such as Los Angeles and New York, panel discussions with real estate practitioners, a speaker series with industry leaders such as Albert Ratner and Bob Toll, and social networking events. New this year was a brown bag lunch series with real estate faculty, on topics such as real estate investments and public-private partnerships. In 2008-2009, the club will continue to bring in high-profile speakers, offer educational classes, facilitate student-faculty interaction, and assist students with their career search. Presidents are Matt Doelger and Sara Nasuti. The Wharton Undergraduate Real Estate Club has a number of things planned for the Fall. Their new club format includes monthly general body meetings, each with a panel-led forum on a current real estate trend/topic. Each month the panel will change, except for one spot that is always reserved for the club's faculty advisor, Prof. Grace Wong. Club leadership strongly believes that getting their members actively involved in the discussion rather than just listening will add an interesting dynamic to the club. They also plan on holding a speaker mini-series, "Real Estate Investing and the Entrepreneur," which will focus on how young adults can begin investing in real estate on their own. They are putting together their marquee speaker series, "The Master Series in Real Estate". They hope to bring two major speakers to campus each semester and are working hardest on that feature. The club's presidents are Ben Molever and Scott Zeigler.
The Penn Law Real Estate Club looks forward to beginning a new year, hoping to increase involvement by offering more opportunities for networking with real estate attorneys and exposing law students to real estate development efforts/volunteer opportunities throughout Philadelphia. They would like to host a few new events that include an alumni real estate law panel, a discussion of diversity in the real estate profession, and a service project involving development efforts in Philadelphia. They look forward to continued partnership with other organizations at the Law School, including the Urban Law Forum and the broader Penn community. Their goal is to ensure that law students are not only exposed to a variety of opportunities in the real estate field but also have an opportunity to have a positive impact on development efforts in their communities. They welcome the participation and support of alumni. The club's presidents are Sharifa Anderson and Kendal Lucas. The School of Design Real Estate Club had a Spring 2008 semester packed with events. Site visits included a tour of the Murano Building on Market Street, as well as the recently completed Comcast Center with representatives from Liberty Property Trust. The lunch series remained popular, with a set of outstanding speakers, including Philadelphia real estate experts Walt D'Alessio and Ed Brown; Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron; city planning and Wharton professor Lynne Sagalyn, who spoke about eminent domain and holdouts; developer Alan Razak, principal of the Razak Company; Art Pasquarella of BPG Properties, who taught a session on back-of-the-envelope calculations; Omar Blaik, president and CEO of U3 Ventures; and Garrett Miller, president of Walnut Street Capital, who spoke about his company's American Commerce Center, a proposed 1,500-foot skyscraper in Center City. Panel discussions, volunteer activities and social events added an element of collaboration. Two panel discussions, co-sponsored by the Wharton Real Estate Club, included the Women in Real Estate Panel in February, and a Sustainability Panel in March. Members of the club participated in Rebuilding Together, an effort to help rebuild homes in West Philadelphia. To close out the year, the club celebrated with an end of year social in mid-April. The club congratulates outgoing president Anne Carson, MCP '08, who won the Herbert K. Brown Scholastic Foundation Award. Genevieve Cadwalader and Lee Striar are the club's presidents this year.
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