Article By Bob Howard
LOS ANGELES-A team of five graduate students affiliated with the USC Lusk Center for Real Estatecolor> has scored USC's third consecutive victory over rival UCLA in the sixth annual USC/UCLA Real Estate Challenge sponsored by the Southern California region of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
The annual NAIOP event at Union Station in Downtown LA, which draws a crowd of leading commercial real estate developers and investors, asked USC and a team from UCLA's Anderson School to come up with the best development strategy for an institutional investor seeking a project to jumpstart the revitalization of Downtown.
The USC proposal targeted a three-block site at Third Street and Broadway, where the initial phase comprised 432 apartments, 65,000 sf of retail and 720 parking spaces as key to furthering the Broadway corridor's redevelopment. USC professor David Dale-Johnsoncolor> was faculty adviser for the winning team, which now holds a record of four wins and two losses against the UCLA team.
The five USC students--from the Marshall School of Business MBA Program and the School of Policy, Planning and Development Masters in Real Estate Development Program--were Ryan Altoon, Vernon Chi, Michael Ortwein, Allyson Watkins and David Webbercolor>.