Three teams competed for the Alexander Bodini Foundation Prizes in the Master Class in Real Estate Investment and Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition 2010, held on Thursday, April 22, 2010.  

This year marked the eleventh anniversary of the competition, which is an innovative landmark of The Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate and was established in 1999 with a generous gift from the Seevak Family Foundation.  This year’s competition and dinner reception was graciously supported by the Alexander Bodini Foundation and Daniele D. Bodini ’72.

For the third year, in a change from previous formats, the competition was intertwined with the Master Class in Real Estate Investment and Entrepreneurship.  In this Master Class, students worked on group projects with industry sponsors, beginning in January 2010.  Under the founding idea of the competition, students working in groups are given an opportunity to take the kernel of an idea, develop it into a comprehensive business plan, and make an oral presentation of the plan to their class.   

The Master Class professors, Adjunct Professor Jeffrey Barclay ’83 and Adjunct Associate Professor Andrew Jacobs ’96, selected the top three projects and those group members competed for cash prizes at the Bodini competition.  Members of the Real Estate Circle, as well as other alumni who have been directly involved with the Center, were invited to attend the presentation event, which was followed by a dinner reception and an awards ceremony.

The JF Capital Advisors team won the first place prize of $5,000 based on their strategic plan for evaluating the opportunity for a “high-end” hostel in New York City and the potential to create a portfolio of these hostels.  This group included team members Jason Davis ’10, Bill Long ’10, Mo Saraiya ’10, and  Jane Yang ’10.   

Winning second place and a $3,000 prize was the Tishman Speyer group, which made a proposal to assess the viability of a retail development on a site that was formally supposed to be an office.  Team members included Jaime Fasja ’10, Kevin Gerrity ’10, Jon Lemle ’10, and Demetrios Yatrakis ’10.  

Third place ($1,000) went to the American Continental Properties team - with students Irem Oral ’10, Artem Smolin ’10, Tommaso Pizzi ’10 – to assess the options for a prime development site in the heart of Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

The panel of judges included a distinguished group of real estate alumni including Robert Berne ’62, formerly with Milstein Properties, Mark Lanspa ’90, Principal at Oasis Real Estate Partners LLC, Nancy Lashine ’81, Managing Partner and Founder of Park Madison Partners, Michael Lehrman ’90, Executive Managing Director of Cantor Fitzgerald, Joseph Smith ’99, founding principal of Glenmont Capital Management LLC, and Robert Stern ’88, Founding and Managing Partner of Castle Hill Investors.

Congratulations to all teams and best of luck following graduation!