A team of Cornell graduate students has won the 2011 MIT Center for Real Estate Competition, held March 31-April 1 in Cambridge, Mass.

The Cornell team comprised four students from the Program in Real Estate and the Johnson School: Brandon Jacobsen, MBA/PRE '13, Randolph Zhao, PRE '12, Michael Majestic, MBA '12, and Dylan Fonseca, MBA '12.

The annual case competition engages real estate and management graduate students in the analysis of a complex development site. Cornell was a first-time participant in the event, which featured 17 teams from programs at 13 schools.

"Participating in the competition was a great opportunity to apply the things we have been learning in class to a real-world project," Jacobsen said.

The teams are given five days to analyze a case focusing on real estate acquisition and financial underwriting at the asset level. Students travel to Cambridge and present their work to panels of industry professionals and competition judges.

The case chosen for analysis this year was a two-acre site located in Boston's financial district, purchased in 2007 by three investment firms for $100 million. The original plan included a 39-story, mixed-use development that would cost nearly $700 million. Due to deteriorating economic conditions, the project was suspended, and the property placed back on the market.

Teams were instructed to analyze the property and ascertain a bid value for the price. After careful analysis, the Cornell team decided to pursue a development project that integrated a mix of retail, apartments and a hotel.

"The case was based on a messy development and came with very few guidelines, which made it very challenging but left a lot of room for creativity," Jacobsen said.

The competition required advanced knowledge of a variety of financial and development issues and skills from other fields of study including design, sustainability and planning -- a skill set representative of the real estate profession as a multidisciplinary industry.

"The two key elements in any case completion are the analysis and the presentation. And you have to nail both to win," said Thomas Hambury, director of executive programs at the Johnson School. "This team's graphic presentation was comprehensive, clear, on-point and elegantly presented. They deserve a lot of credit for this performance under pressure."