Winning First, with a Design Built to Last
In designing a development for a small mountain town, MBAs blended creativity, local engagement and lessons from the CU Real Estate Center
Anyone can create a development. The bigger challenge is creating a community.
Marigold Partners鈥攁 Leeds student team in NAIOP鈥檚 annual Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge鈥攚on this year鈥檚 competition not only thanks to their real estate and business smarts, but because of their willingness to engage the host town of Minturn to build something that reflected the character of what its mayor calls 鈥渁 proud, funky mountain town.鈥�
Each of the students鈥擩es煤s Ba帽uelos-Rivera, Erika Vette, Joe Plastino, Paula Chavarria, Kyle Clinton and Simon Egerton鈥攃ompleted a master鈥檚 or MBA in real estate this spring. The team was selected to represent the university in the NAIOP challenge; Marigold Partners bested a team from the University of Denver to win top honors.
鈥淭his competition shows our students that their lessons aren鈥檛 just theoretical鈥攖hat, in fact, a holistic approach is required in creatively solving problems and bringing new听developments online,鈥� said Michael P. Kercheval, executive director of the CU Real Estate Center. 鈥淚鈥檓 extremely proud of our students for putting together such an听impressive project.鈥�
Through the center, and their own networks, the students were able to tap other resources, as well鈥攁rchitects, financing experts, retailers and so on鈥攁llowing them to create an idyllic community centered around sustainability, authenticity and environmental responsibility.
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