Peter S. Reinhart, Esq., director of the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University, is pleased and proud to announce that a team of Monmouth University students took fourth place in last week’s Villanova Real Estate Challenge. The event brought together universities throughout the nation, including Cornell, Drexel, Florida State, Georgetown, Indiana, Lehigh, NYU, Penn State, UNC, Wharton, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Villanova, Virginia Commonwealth, and York. The winning team was Wharton. Second was Indiana University; third was Penn State.
This was the second year in a row that Monmouth had entered into a team competition involving real estate undergraduate students and made it to the final four. The only other university to get to the final four in both years is Wharton. Team members were seniors Christopher Cianfrani, Shaneil Stokes, Jacob Menture, and Cliff Green.
On Monday morning, each team was given the identical real estate case problem to analyze and prepare both a written and oral presentation to a panel of judges. This year’s problem involved the development of the Hudson Yards redevelopment area in the west side of Manhattan. The competition rules did not allow for any faculty or outside assistance other than any free research available on the Internet or in their course materials. The written presentations were delivered Thursday evening followed by oral presentations to the judges Friday morning. Following the morning round, four finalists were selected and oral presentations delivered Friday afternoon. The winners were announced immediately following the afternoon round.
Professor Reinhart said: “I am so proud of the hard work and dedication our team demonstrated. They worked throughout the day and night to analyze a very complex and challenging problem. Their solutions demonstrated incredible creativity and knowledge of real estate. The judges threw them some tough questions, and the team handled them skillfully. We are also grateful to Villanova for hosting this opportunity for real estate students from around the country to demonstrate their talents to a panel of experienced real estate professionals.”