The Center for Real Estate would like to welcome William A. Witte and Bill Williams as our newest advisory board members. William A. Witte is President of Related Companies of California and Bill Williams is the Co-Founder and CEO of CWS Capital Partners. We would like to extend our appreciation to both of these board members, as well as to our existing Center donors for their ongoing support and contributions. Membership gifts are critical to supporting the activities of the Center. For more information about joining the Center’s board, please contact the Center’s Associate Director, Sharon Nakamura-Brown at Sharon.nakamura@uci.edu or at 949/824-6246. To view a complete roster of the Center’s donors, please click here.

A vital element to UC Irvine’s MBA Real Estate Curriculum at the Paul Merage School of Business is the Real Estate Development Process course taught by John Kelterer. This course is intended to introduce the student to the nature and composition of the development community and to familiarize the student with the development process – from planning, obtaining an option on the site, finding equity partners and lenders at the beginning; through the approval process and construction; to lease-up, property and asset management, and ultimate disposition. The course emphasizes the role of the developer in identifying and implementing a real estate project within a framework of conflicting interests, values and goals, and a market which doesn't always behave as expected. Lectures are supplemented by a number of guest lecturers representing different roles in the development process to provide students various professional perspectives. The course emphasizes the importance of real world application, as such students work with a client in putting together a feasibility analysis and optimal deal structure for an actual development project. To view a complete description of our real estate course offerings, please CLICK HERE.

Dr. Kerry Vandell is currently working on a synthesis of the findings presented at the Center’s second annual academic symposium entitled, “Housing after the Fall: Reassessing the Future of the American Dream.” This piece will take a comprehensive look at the symposium’s findings and other historical data, and will distill it to discern the most likely future structure of the housing and mortgage markets, neighborhoods, and cities. The paper provides recommendations for each topical area of discussion – secondary markets, derivatives, mortgage products, and homeownership policy, among others. The intended audience of the white paper is not simply the academic and policy research communities, but it is hoped that the paper will be of direct use to professionals in the housing and mortgage sectors, legislators, officials of the executive branch, and other policy makers at the federal level. The synthesis will also be of great use to non-profit institutions to facilitate the selection process for funding of research programs.

The Center for Real Estate hosted a public breakfast event on May 6 which featured retail legend Alfred Taubman, the Center’s first recipient of the Distinguished Executive-In-Residence Award. The talk was titled “The Future of Retailing and Other Lessons in Life: A Conversation with Al Taubman” and was moderated by Ethan Penner, Managing Director of CB Richard Ellis Investors. Mr. Taubman reflected on his illustrious career and some of his diverse life experiences, which included the purchase of The Irvine Ranch, buying the art auction house Sotheby’s, and running A&W Root Beer. He also discussed his current business plans in the movie production business and gave his outlook on the future of the retail industry. At the conclusion of the event, Mr. Taubman was awarded the Distinguished Executive-In-Residence Award for his commitment to excellence in leadership, education and mentorship of students and young professionals, and dedication to enhancement of the communities he has served. We would like to thank Mr. Taubman for his involvement with the Center’s activities, and for making his time with us a special and memorable experience.

The Merage Real Estate Association and the Center for Real Estate hosted its first annual International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Next Generation Conference on May 14. The purpose of this event was to inform current students, along with young local real estate professionals of the benefits of joining ICSC as well as to provide a meaningful discussion about the retail sector. The event was moderated by Steve Thorp of Burnham USA and featured 5 panelists: Ryan Rhoads of The Irvine Company, Paul Collins of McDonalds, Matt Christensen of United Investments, LLC, Jack Lee of Amazon Financial Corporation, and Mike Needler of Capmark Financial. The panelists discussed their rewarding experiences as ICSC members, provided career advice to the students, and discussed the future of retail. Special thanks to all the ICSC speakers, as well as to Jay Tanjuan and MREA officers for coordinating this event.

John Kelterer currently teaches the Real Estate Development course as part of UC Irvine’s MBA Program at the Paul Merage School of Business. John has over 30 years of real estate experience in banking, investment banking, real estate development, and real estate consulting. Most recently, John formed the RBF Asset Management Group with RBF Consulting, a group designed to assist owners and holders of real estate with troubled assets. Additionally, John serves as Principal at the real estate advisory firm - McWalters and Kelterer - a position he has held since 2005. Prior to that, he was a Principal at Mandalay Bay Partners, LLC where he developed 136 acres of waterfront property at the Channel Islands Harbor in Ventura County, CA. Also during this time, he served as advisor and consultant on four planned communities in Northern and Southern California. Prior to that, Mr. Kelterer founded Benchmark Development Company, where Mr. Kelterer served as its President and CEO. Benchmark was the Master Developer of a 5000-acre master planned community known as Rancho Santa Margarita located in South Orange County. John also served at Merrill Lynch as an Investment and Merchant Banker in the Merrill Lynch Financial Services Group. Furthermore, John spent 16 years at Wells Fargo Bank where, as Senior Vice President, he founded the Southern California Division of the bank's Real Estate Industries Group. The Southern California Division grew to generate in excess of $2 billion in annual financing within 5 years. A native of San Francisco, Mr. Kelterer is a graduate of Santa Clara University where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Science and Commerce. He also holds a MBA from the University of San Francisco. Mr. Kelterer resides with his wife and daughter in Laguna Beach, California.

Jason Ireland is a first year full-time MBA candidate at the UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business. He also serves as the 2008-2009 Center for Real Estate Fellow, in a role that supports the Center’s marketing and communications needs (including helping to write our important quarterly E-Bulletins). Jason attended the University of Oklahoma and holds a BS in Chemical Engineering. Following graduation, Jason was hired by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and worked as a Product Engineer at one of their tire manufacturing facilities. He was responsible for improving tire compound performance both in the plant and in the field. While working at Goodyear, he formed a small real estate company which focused on buying distressed homes, rehabbing them, and eventually converting them into rental property. From this experience with real estate, Jason became highly interested in it and decided that he wanted to pursue real estate as his career. He is the incoming Co-President of the Merage Real Estate Association and together with Co-President Lee Busse and the other newly instated MREA officers, Jason is currently working diligently to plan next year’s 2009-2010 MREA activities. Jason is an active member of the ULI Young Leaders Group, Toastmasters, and Challenge for Charity (C4C). He was a volunteer tutor at a public housing recreation center for several years and was a mentor in the Children of Incarcerated Parents Program.

Marco Vakili is a 20-year veteran of the real estate industry and has worked primarily on residential and mixed-use urban in-fill and redevelopment projects. He was Division Vice-President of BRE Properties, Inc., one of California’s largest multi-family REIT’s, and also served as Vice-President of Urban Development for Lennar Homes. In those roles he was responsible for the overall development process including acquisitions, due-diligence, entitlements, design, budgeting & scheduling, and management reporting. Marco developed and completed several residential projects, most with retail components, which ranged in density from 4-story low rise to 40-story high rise buildings. Prior to that, Marco worked at Pepsi Co. within the real estate arm of its subsidiary restaurant chain - Taco Bell. He was responsible for gaining corporate approvals for the acquisition of over 400 new restaurant sites across the country, totaling over a half a billion dollars. He later moved into strategic planning for the company where he evaluated its real estate holdings across the country and created strategic plans for the acquisition and disposition of assets. Marco holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics, both from the University of California, Irvine. He was a scholarship recipient from the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks and founder of the Real Estate Association at UCI’s Business School. Marco is married, has two children and lives in Carlsbad. He can be contacted at marcovakili@roadrunner.com

The UC Irvine Real Estate Alumni Association (UCIREA) had its first “Shop Talk” event of the year on April 22nd, 2009 which was hosted in partnership with CB Richard Ellis and The Irvine Company. The event featured 5 panelists: Keith Eyrich, President of The Irvine Company Retail Properties, Pat Donahue, President and CEO of Donahue Schriber, Larry Meyer, Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Forever 21, Jeff Nichols, Director of Real Estate of Home Depot Western Division, Scott Kaplan, Senior Managing Director of CBRE Retail Western Division. The event was moderated by Jeff Dodd, Senior Vice-President of The Irvine Company Retail Properties, and Jeff Moore, Senior Managing Director of CBRE. The panelists discussed their perspectives on the issues impacting the local retail industry which included the impact of consolidations, bankruptcies, and re-letting big boxes as well provided insight on managing through the current economic recession. The Center for Real Estate would like to especially thank the panelists and moderators for their insightful discussions, as well as CB Richard Ellis and The Irvine Company for making this event a success. To learn more information about UCIREA, which is open to all members of the real estate community, please visit: www.ucirea.org, or e mail: alumni@ucirea.org.

The Center for Real Estate would like to recognize Laura Sheen and Jay Tanjuan, both MBA students at UC Irvine, for their involvement with the Building Block Foundation Fund. Jay and Laura serve on the foundation’s advisory board and are heavily involved in their philanthropic events. Most recently, they were involved in the 4th Annual Celebration Event titled, “Against All Odds” which featured former Anaheim Angels and NY Yankees pitcher Jim Abbott. The fundraising event focused on the disenfranchised youth of Orange County, and utilized the foundation to provide these children with better resources to make a positive transition into adulthood. The Building Block Foundation Fund is a philanthropic organization designed to enable the commercial real estate community to contribute in a meaningful way to the long-term future of Orange County. The fund funnels the goodwill of the local industry into a performance-based giving program that is sustainable and accountable.

Breakfast Meeting #1
7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Pacific Club, Newport Beach, California

2009 Real Estate Awards Celebration
TBD

Breakfast Meeting #2
7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Pacific Club, Newport Beach, California

3rd Annual Research Symposium
TBD

Breakfast Meeting #3
TBD