A team of students from the Dollinger Master of Real Estate Development program at the USC Price School of Public Policy won the 2015 Real Estate Challenge in November, topping their cross-town counterparts from UCLA to claim the prestigious Silver Shovel Award.
Sponsored by the NAIOP, a leading real estate professional association, the competition requires students to prepare comprehensive development proposals for a location in southern California. This year’s site involved a 950,000-square-foot former indoor shopping mall located in Hawthorne that had been inoperative for more than a decade.
The USC team was comprised of Dollinger MRED students Jeff Cairney, Amanda Keedy, Matthew Macher, Bryan Russell and Emily Taylor. Their award-winning proposal, which they presented to an audience of nearly 300 industry professionals at USC’s Town & Gown ballroom, involved the development of Avenir Park, a mixed-use project that captured demand for housing to activate a dormant intersection, turning it into a food-oriented retail destination that works to serve the existing community while peering ahead into better downtown for Hawthorne.
“Jeff, Amanda, Matt, Bryan, and Emily did a wonderful job understanding the intersection of what was possible with what was necessary,” said Christian Redfearn, the Borstein Family Endowed Professor of Real Estate and director of graduate programs in real estate at USC Price.
He added, “While I’m always proud of our teams, this year’s group stands out because of the feedback from the judges afterwards. They found the USC Dollinger MRED team well-prepared and demonstrating a clear mastery of the site and submarket.”