Belk College establishes new real estate research center

Real estate industry leaders from Charlotte and throughout North Carolina have raised nearly $2 million to launch a real estate research center at UNC Charlotte. The Center for Real Estate will focus on research topics of concern to the industry and will expand the real estate programs at UNC Charlotte through additional courses, scholarships, internships and executive education.

Real estate industry leaders and UNC Charlotte officials gathered at a Feb. 17 reception to announce the creation of the Center for Real Estate. From left: Todd Mansfield, CEO of Crosland; Fred Klein, managing partner of Childress Klein Properties; John Crosland Jr., chairman of the board of Crosland; Steven Ott, the John Crosland Sr. professor of real estate at UNC Charlotte and director of the Center for Real Estate; Claude Lilly, dean of the Belk College of Business at UNC Charlotte; James H. Woodward, UNC Charlotte chancellor; Mark Boyce, corporate director of C.P. Morgan homebuilders; Mike Carpenter, executive vice president of the N.C. Home Builders Association; and Rick Judson, 2004 president of the N.C. Home Builders Association.

“ The Center for Real Estate is the culmination of a multi-year effort to build a real estate program of national stature at UNC Charlotte,” said UNC Charlotte Chancellor James Woodward. “It is the embodiment of the successful partnership between the university and the real estate industry – a relationship strengthened by our mutual interest in growing and supporting the North Carolina economy.”

Steven Ott (left), the John Crosland Sr. distinguished professor of real estate in the Belk College of Business, will serve as director of the Center for Real Estate. Ott was recruited to UNC Charlotte in 1999 from the University of Kentucky to create a real estate curriculum in the Belk College. He developed an academic concentration in the MBA program, which currently enrolls 35 students, and formed an advisory board of industry leaders to assist with program development and student recruitment and placement.

Ott and his graduate students have already conducted several real-estate related research projects, including a study on transit-oriented development and another on mixed-use projects. A future project will study the effect of land planning regulations on real estate values and development timing.

Donors in the first phase of fund raising for the real estate center include developer H.C. “Smoky” Bissell; Crosland; developer John Crosland Jr.; the Charlotte Regional Realtor® Association; developer Robert C. Rhein; the National Housing Endowment; the N.C. Home Builders Association; the Home Builders Association of Charlotte; and home builder C.P. Morgan. Donors were recognized at a Thursday, Feb. 17, reception at UNC Charlotte.

Spearheaded by Claude Lilly, dean of the Belk College, fundraising will continue with a goal to raise a total of $3 million for the real estate center’s endowment.

Information on the real estate program is available at http://www.belkcollege.uncc.edu/Real_Estate/index.htm