News: Portland State University Real Estate Students Win NAIOP International Competition

The Portland State University real estate student team won the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) Pacific Northwest Real Estate Challenge, held March 24 at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Seattle.

This marks the second time in four years that Portland State University has won the prestigious "Bob Filley Cup," defeating teams from the University of Washington, Washington State University, and the University of British Columbia. The competition is sponsored by the Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia chapters of the NAIOP.
 
In the NAIOP Challenge, students are asked to produce a redevelopment proposal for a pre-selected property. In this case, the teams from the four universities were presented with an aging apartment complex next to the Northgate Mall in north Seattle. The Portland State students proposed building 683 units of affordable housing over five phases, taking advantage of federal HUD 221(d)(4) housing program and a city of Seattle housing program. The students' innovative proposal included the use of tuck-under parking and relied upon the existing zoning, which both reduced costs and avoided requiring a zoning change. Other teams chose more dense development, requiring more costly underground parking costs, reducing affordability, and creating more uncertainty and delay, due to the required zoning change.

The judges commented that the Portland State presentation was the most successful in accounting for the current financial conditions by reducing the risks of development. The judges also felt that the Portland State plan did the best job of carefully phasing in new development and slowly phasing out the existing use, which still generates significant positive cash flows.

The team consisted of the following eight students from Portland State University's Graduate Real Estate Development Certificate program: David Blindheim, Kate Chavez, Brian Newman, Mickey Nucci, John Patton, Carly Riter, Stephen Smith, and Caroline Uittenbroeck. The team was directed by Professor Will Macht and numerous industry mentors who advised the team on their project.

Photo courtesy of the Daily Journal of Commerce

(left to right) Dr. Gerard Mildner, Director, PSU Center for Real Estate; Brian Newman; Mickey Nucci; Dr. Will Macht, Associate Director, PSU Center for Real Estate; Kate Chavez
(front) Stephen Smith, Caroline Uittenbroek

Portland State University
Portland State University serves as a center of opportunity for over 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Located in Portland, Oregon, one of the nation's most livable cities, the University's innovative approach to education combines academic rigor in the classroom with field-based experiences through internships and classroom projects with community partners. The University's 47-acre downtown campus exhibits PSU's commitment to sustainability with green buildings, while many of the 125 bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees incorporate sustainability into the curriculum. PSU's motto, "Let Knowledge Serve the City," inspires the teaching and research of an accomplished faculty whose work and students span the globe.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (#09-009)
Source: Gerard C.S. Mildner (503) 725-5175
Director, Center for Real Estate