Michele Mariani
School Days
A crash course on real estate development helps executives learn the business.
Success in real estate development comes from more than skill in construction, finance, and sales. Twice a year, classes of about 25 real estate professionals learn just that in the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate's Ross Minority Program in Real Estate, designed to teach the ins and outs of urban development.
Students—most of whom have prior experience in some aspect of real estate—learn about a wide range of topics such as feasibility analyses and delivering units. Finance comprises much of the curriculum, but the program takes participants beyond books; real investors interested in making deals attend the sessions as guest speakers and meet students over networking dinners.
“The most important part of the program is creating the network,” says Nicole McAllister, the Lusk Center's executive director of development and external affairs, who adds that having more than 300 fellow alumni gives participants a ready supply of colleagues from which to build development teams.