LOS ANGELES-USC took home the Silver Shovel Award at the 16th annual NAIOP Real Estate Challenge on November 21. An audience of 300 real estate professionals came to watch top graduate students from Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA's Anderson School of Management and the Lusk Center at USC's Marshall School of Business and Price School of Public Policy. James C. “Watty” Watson, CT Realty Investors CEO and president, was the emcee for the evening.

“One of our objectives at NAIOP SoCal is to enhance the real estate industry,” said Lang Cottrell, Goodman Birtcher Southwest regional director and NAIOP SoCal 2013 president. “A great way to accomplish this objective is to help foster future industry leaders. With the NAIOP SoCal Real Estate Challenge, we've showcased the talents and creativity of the next generation of real estate professionals, in a dynamic forum that also celebrates the USC vs. UCLA rivalry.”

This year, the student teams were challenged to create proposals for an 11-acre development site on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach, where the Seaport Marina Hotel currently stands. Both former starting quarterbacks, UCLA's Cory Paus and USC's Shane Foley served as honorary team captains. Real estate industry leaders judged the team proposals based on best land use, density, building mass and symbolic connection to the City of Long Beach.

USC's Stephen K. Anderson, MRED 2014; Daniel J. Bertao, MRED 2014; Nicholas A. D'Argenzio, MRED 2014; Matthew P. Keipper, MRED 2014; and Christian J. Santos, MRED 2014 won the challenge with their “Belmont Yards” proposal, which planned to replace the hotel with an outdoor, neighborhood-style village, retail space and a permanent farmer's market. The concept connected the development and the marina with a pedestrian bridge. The highlight of the proposal, however, was the use of recycled shipping containers, which incorporated the importance and history of Long Beach's shipping industry.

NAIOP hosts several events nationwide. Earlier this month in New York City, the organization hosted a tech revolution series that brought building owners, developers and tenants together to discuss technology issues. Called Technology Innovations in CRE and NYC Infrastructure, the event covered connectivity, secure data and energy usage tracking systems in real estate technology.

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Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.

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