News from The Real Estate Center

SIOR Chicago Chapter Scholarship Recipients

Real Estate Research and Presentations

Commercial Real Estate Forecast Conference

SIOR Chicago Chapter Scholarship Recipients

Since 1984, the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR)-Chicago Chapter and the SIOR Foundation have awarded scholarships with the goal to recognize and reward outstanding academic performance in business and real estate courses and to expose recipients to career opportunities and internship programs available within the Chicago real estate community.

DePaul real estate students are eligible to apply for the Cynthia L. Bischof Memorial Scholarship from the SIOR Chicago Chapter along with the SIOR Chicago Chapter Scholarship both in the amount of $3000.

This year's recipient of the Cynthia L. Bischof Memorial scholarship was MBA student Christine Brown, and the winner of SIOR Scholarship was MBA student, Derek Fohl.

Both Christine and Derek are eligible to attend SIOR-Chicago Chapter business meetings, as long as they remain in the academic program. They also were invited to attend the SIOR Holiday Luncheon on December 2nd at the Glenview Golf Club where all of the scholarship recipients were presented with their awards.

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James West of SIOR; scholarship recipient, Derek Fohl and Steve Bell, DePaul Real Estate faculty member

Real Estate Research and Presentations

The faculty in the Department of Real Estate continue to contribute cutting-edge research, case studies and presentations to the industry. Recent publications include:

Dr. Charles Wurtzebach, the George L. Ruff Visiting Professor in Real Estate Studies, recently completed a case study entitled "The Barton State Teachers Retirement System" that deals with many of the issues facing public pension investors as they develop future real estate investment strategies. The case focuses specifically on the investment characteristics that real estate brings to the overall mixed asset portfolio. These characteristics include the potential of enhanced risk-adjusted returns via effective asset class diversification, stable cash flows, and a range of investment styles consistent with the portfolios overall strategy. The present case highlights the issues and challenges associated with developing a coherent real estate portfolio within the constraints of changing market conditions and pension fund goals and objectives.

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Dr. Susanne Cannon, the Douglas and Cynthia Crocker Endowed Director of the Real Estate Center, participated in the European Real Estate Socitety's (ERES) seventh annual Education Seminar on Dec. 2nd and 3rd at the Henley Business School-University of Reading. The aim of the seminar is to provide an important forum for sharing experiences, identifying best practices and fostering pan European collaboration among all potential stakeholders, in particular, real estate educators. Cannon participated in the panel that explored Global Perspectives on the Future of Real Estate Education.

In addition, The Institute for Housing Studies (IHS), housed within the Real Estate Center and funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, recently released a report called "The State of Rental Housing in Cook County." The report, which was produced in conjunction with the Preservation Compact, provides an overview of Cook County's current rental housing market, assesses the effects of the real estate and financial crises (among other factors) on the market, and identifies variations across different parts of the county. Based on current conditions and potential changes in the broader economy, it estimates how the county's rental market will evolve over the next 10 years and discusses the ramifications of those different scenarios.

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The report received media coverage in the Chicago Tribune and NPR's Morning Edition Program. Both mediums included interview quotes from the Institute's executive director, Geoff Smith.

On a separate topic, Smith was also interviewed by ABC7's Leah Hope for her story, "Study: 46 percent of Chicago single family homeowners underwater on mortgages."

Commercial Real Estate Forecast Conference

On January 24, 2012 the Illinois Real Estate Journal, together with the Real Estate Center and SIOR, will mark the 10th anniversary of producing a Commercial Real Estate Forecast Event. It is the longest and largest running event of its kind in the Chicago area.

The Annual Commercial Real Estate Forecast Event is an outstanding opportunity for networking and sharing information:

* an hour of networking before the program begins (and ample other opportunities for meeting and greeting),
*a special keynote presentation featuring Sam Zell, chairman of Equity Group Investments, and Debra Cafaro, chief executive officer, Ventas, Inc. and Sustaining Sponsor of the Real Estate Center
* three general session panels and
* as many as six specialty breakout sessions.

The conference will be held at the Marriott Chicago Downtown 540 N. Michigan Ave. Registration and networking begin at 7:00am and the program runs from 8:00 to Noon. The registration fee is $99.

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