A team of four Villanova School of Business MBA students, Brandon Segal, Benjamin Littell, Rob Ostapowicz and Chris Poston, under the auspices of the Daniel M DiLella Center for Real Estate, advanced to the semi-finals of the MIT Real Estate Challenge, held at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, England.
The MIT Real Estate Challenge focuses on real estate acquisition, development programming and financial underwriting at the asset level. It mimics the professional circumstances and assignments that students interested in real estate finance, acquisitions and development are likely to encounter after graduation. The initial round of the competition gave teams five days to submit a comprehensive letter of intent, a fully functional Excel-based financial model and a summary PowerPoint presentation. A panel of judges then selected semi-finalist teams to travel to London. There, the top teams will present in front of an array of judges and industry professionals. The Villanova team was one of 12 semi-finalists selected among competitors representing 42 of the top graduate-level universities worldwide.
This competition gave these four Villanova MBA students comprehensive insight into the nuances of real estate finance, acquisitions and development, as well as an opportunity to compete on a global scale against a talented collection of graduate students. The achievement of these motivated students has broadened the scope of Villanova’s accredited DiLella Center for Real Estate and the nationally-ranked MBA program as a whole.
