![\"Julie](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mit-competition.jpg\")
\u201cOurs was to create a high profile project as Miami is trying to get into the 21st<\/sup> century,\u201d said Julie Petrella Arch, who led the four-person MISRE team. \u201cIt was particularly challenging because we had a true development project.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to Petrella, a commercial real estate appraiser, the MSIRE team included Francisco Perez, an architect; Duen McLean II, a real estate development consultant; and Enrique Pi\u00f1eiro, a realtor. Each brought to the team different skills that when combined made it possible to develop the $1.5 billion project.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hardest part was figuring out how it all comes together \u2013 finances, project\u2019s needs and uses, shareholder\u2019s interests \u2013 plus putting the concept and visuals on paper,\u201d said McLean.<\/p>\n \u201cTeam Six,\u201d as the FIU team was identified in the competition, submitted a sophisticated project that included uniting two tracts of land, relocating the property\u2019s existing tenant, demolishing a building and parking lot, and designing a multi-purpose master plan to create \u201cBayport Plaza.\u201d<\/p>\n The new site would include a maritime museum, hotel, residential apartments, workforce housing for port employees, office and meeting space, and retail outlets. Among the other features: a 150-foot setback to allow for rising sea levels plus alternative power sources including solar, wind and LEED platinum certification.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just an office building; there were different income streams and costs that we had to consider,\u201d Petrella said. \u201cIt was very cumbersome, yet at the same time fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Discipline and strategy were key.<\/em><\/p>\n Now in its fifth year, the CASE Competition mimics the professional circumstances and assignments that students in real estate finance, acquisitions and development are likely to encounter after graduation. It\u2019s organized by the Alumni Association of MIT\u2019s Center for Real Estate. This year was MSIRE\u2019s fourth in the CASE Competition.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a very young program, we made significant improvements that showed the quality of our students and the strength of our program,\u201d Zhonghua Wu, associate professor of real estate, who served as advisor for FIU\u2019s 2016 team. \u201cThe advantage of our team was that we had a broad base of knowledge and skill sets.\u201d<\/p>\n Hollo School director William Hardin and Assistant Professor Eli Beracha, who both served as pre-competition team advisors, noted that the students\u2019 advancement to the semi-final round reflects the excellence of the MSIRE program. The faculty members and students agreed that the most valuable aspect of participating was incorporating their combined knowledge with intense discipline.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an arduous process because all of us work and attend classes; we had to be very judicious with our time,\u201d said Petrella. \u201cBeing able to implement the different things we\u2019ve learned and building something from an idea through design, cash-flow and development was very rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n Each of the 12 teams in the semi-final round made a 15-minute oral presentation defending their assumptions before four judges in Boston. Three teams advanced to the final round.<\/p>\n Perez recalled that following the presentation, one of the judges, who heads a real estate investment trust (REIT) praised the team\u2019s work. \u201cHe said his own team couldn\u2019t have done better that we had,\u201d Perez noted. \u201cWe did a lot of strategizing and everything fell into place early.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2016 CASE Competition winners were Georgetown University, taking first place with their proposal for “Port South,” followed by UCLA (“Crucero Bay”) and Cornell University (“Biscayne Landing”).<\/p>\n \u201cThe best real estate minds in the U.S. and the world competed,\u201d said Petrella. \u201cIt was a great experience. We learned a lot on how we can get better at this competition and now we can all sit down and strategize about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Skilled analysis, creativity and intense work propelled students in FIU\u2019s Hollo School of Real Estate to the semi-final round of MIT\u2019s rigorous CASE Competition. Advancing to the semi-finals alongside Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, MIT, UCLA and other prestigious universities, FIU was named one of the top 12 teams, a first for the Master of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":26479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3985,3564,3940,3984,2836,3983,1814,1956,3806,2702],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26480,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26476\/revisions\/26480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Duen](\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/mit-competition-2.jpg\")