February 14-15, 2013
The UNC Real Estate Development Challenge is a case competition hosted by the Center for Real Estate Development at Kenan-Flagler Business School. An invitation-only event, the Challenge convenes 16 teams from the US and Europe’s top-20 MBA programs to compete. This annual event is the first business school case competition to focus solely on real estate development. In the past, the case has challenged teams to propose uses for an actual site, devise a development program and site plan, and work through project financials. We invite teams in the early fall for this early spring event.
A Typical Event Schedule
The Case Challenge officially begins with the distribution of the challenge case. This is done at noon the Tuesday of Challenge week. Once distributed, teams may not receive outside help from anyone including faculty and team alternates. Teams may use only public research that they find on the Internet.
By Thursday evening, teams gather in Chapel Hill for a welcome reception and dinner. The next day, the challenge competition begins in earnest. Teams gather at the school for breakfast and the drawing of the morning presentation times. We use four presentation rooms simultaneously; teams present their case solutions in a 20-minute presentation, followed by 5 minutes of questions from judges who are experts in the real estate industry. Only after lunch do teams learn which four will move to the finals in the afternoon. The "Final Four" present again in the afternoon to a judging pool and the remaining teams. By afternoon's end, the judges select the team that they believe has given the best solution to the Challenge Case. Cash prizes go to first, second and third-place teams. We host a social Friday night to celebrate in Chapel Hill for those teams that can remain until Saturday.
2012 Challenge Trivia:
- The 2012 Challenge case was inspired by an alumni who works for Disney Resort Real Estate Development. The case covered two parcels still to be developed by Disney in Celebration. Like most of our cases this one was not without its many moving parts and constraints.
- The winning teams for the 2012 Challenge were first place, University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School, second place, UCLA Anderson School of Management, and a tie for third place, Duke University, the Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School.
- Companies represented on our 2012 panel of judges: AvalonBay Communities, BioMed Realty Trust, BPG Properties, Disney, Gibraltar Homes, Greystar Real Estate Partners, Harvey Real Estate, IndCor Properties, McCraney Property Company, Mill Creek Residential Trust LLC, Neal Capital, Prudential Real Estate Investors, and the University of North Carolina.