Four teams competed for the Alexander Bodini Foundation Prizes in the Real Estate Investment and Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition held on Thursday, March 24, 2011.

This year marked the twelfth anniversary of the competition, an innovative landmark of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate.  The competition was established in 1999 with a generous gift from the Seevak Family Foundation.  The 2011 competition and awards dinner was graciously supported by the Alexander Bodini Foundation and Daniele D. Bodini ’72. 

In the project class students work on group projects with industry sponsors. 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 and the competition judges.

The 2011 Project Class professor, Andrew Jacobs ’96 presented the four 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 Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate, were invited to attend the presentation event, which was followed by a dinner and awards ceremony.

The panel of judges was comprised of a distinguished group of real estate alumni including moderator Robert Berne ’62, formerly with Milstein Properties, Mark Lanspa ’90, managing director at Credit Suisse, Nancy Lashine ’81, managing partner and founder of Park Madison Partners, Joseph Smith ’99, founding partner of Glenmont Capital Management, and Robert Stern ’88, founder and managing partner of Castle Hill Investors.

The Thayer Lodging team was awarded the first place prize of $5,000 for their strategic plan on Maximizing Fund Returns for a Distressed Lodging Portfolio - by implementing creative financial strategies for each hotel asset in the portfolio and capitalizing on the anticipated near term rebound in the lodging industry in the US.  This group included team members Pedro Zevallos (MsRED ’11), Luigi Kai ’11, Brett Stewart ’11, and Adam Simkin (MsRED ’11).

The second place prize of $3,000 was awarded to the Tishman Speyer group, which investigated how Tishman should proceed in India in order to obtain optimal returns while maintaining fiduciary responsibilities. Team members included David Giancola ’11, Brendan Fay ’11, John Phinney (MsRED ’11), and Dan Goodier (MsRED ’11).

The third place prize of $1,000 went to the JP Morgan team of Julia Nachman ’11, Jeremy Griffin ’11, Hansen Shieh ’11, and Tim Nguyen (MsRED ’11) for their project which evaluated strategic options for an underperforming asset in its portfolio.

There was an honorable mention for the ACP team – which created a development strategy for a 155-acre parcel of land owned by the firm in Washington Township, NJ. Team members included John English ’11, Rishi Gupta ’11, David Kwitman ’11, and Amelia Patt (MsRED ’11).

Alexander Bodini Foundation Prize Winners