ICSC & UNC Retail Real Estate Case Competition
ICSC & UNC Retail Real Estate Case Competition
The Leonard W. Wood Center for Real Estate Studies at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School was asked to partner with the ICSC Foundation in 2023 to co-host the Retail Real Estate Case Competition at ICSC Las Vegas. This invitation-only case competition is held annually during ICSC Las Vegas. Teams are made up of up to four undergraduate students from real estate programs across the U.S. and Canada. Students are given five days to tackle the case and prepare their presentation before traveling to Las Vegas to present to an esteemed panel of real estate judges and compete for $20,000 in prize money.
Congratulations to the top teams 0f 2026:
1st: Wofford College
2nd: University of Alabama
3rd: University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
& Colorado State University
& Colorado State University
The 2026 Case
This year’s case was based off Asana Partner’s The Arboretum, a 196,000 square foot shopping centerlocated in Austin, TX. The case asked students to evaluate options forrepositioning the center which included retenanting a flagship anchor space, reimagining the tenant mix, exploring outparcel development, and enhancing placemaking elements.
Read more about the case at A Value-Add Repositioning of an Austin Shopping Center.
Other Participating Schools
- Baruch College
- California State University Northridge
- Indiana University
- Lehigh University
- Marquette University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia
- The University of Alabama
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of South Alabama
- The University of Texas at Austin
- The University of Texas at El Paso
- Villanova University
Finals Judges
- JP Suarez, ICSC chair
- Ivy Greaner, Levy Legacy Group
- Kenneth Lamy, The Lamy Group/DPI Exeter
Preliminary Judges
- Peter Borzak, Pine Tree
- Michael Carroll, RD Management
- Rod Castan, Metro Commercial
- David Henry, Peaceable Street Capital
- Sarah Johnson, JLL
- Ran Meng, Phillips Edison & Co.
- Jared Nutt, Citi
- Daniel Radek, First Washington Realty
- Gary Rappaport, Rappaport
- Danielle Richardson, KPR
- Beverly Ricks, Retail Property Solutions
- Christopher Smitherman II, McDonald’s
- Dina Stetler, CBRE
- Carrie Trongone, JLL
- Max Unger, Structure