Fall 2006 -- Vol. 59, No. 4

WANTED: Exceptional students interested in building the future. Ideal applicants must be part visionary, part pragmatist — all business! Those interested in building great communities are encouraged to apply.

Even for Clemson University — never short on big ideas — this concept seemed really big: a one-of-a-kind real estate development program that would groom its graduates to become intellectual leaders in creating tomorrow’s most inspired communities.

It was the brainchild of leaders from two academic colleges — Architecture, Arts and Humanities and Business and Behavioral Science — with instrumental initial support from former deans Jim Barker and Jerry Trapnell. The program was kick-started by a very generous gift from a Clemson alumnus who has asked to remain anonymous.

Hot property

Their bold vision became a reality this past May when Clemson celebrated its first graduating class in the Master of Real Estate Development program. The MRED is a full-time, two-year professional degree offered jointly by the planning and landscape architecture department and the finance department.

“It’s important to recognize that there are fewer than 10 graduate programs in real estate development in the nation, in prestigious universities such as MIT, Columbia, Cornell, Southern Cal, Texas A&M and Johns Hopkins,” says J. Terrence Farris, program director. “Clemson’s MRED program is the only one offered jointly by architecture and business colleges. It is a critical distinction that gives Clemson students a unique and compelling advantage.”

That’s right. It is the only program of its kind in the United States.

Six disciplines are involved — MBA, finance, law, city and regional planning, architecture, and construction science and management — plus new courses in real estate development. Students in the MRED program gain a philosophical grounding in all those areas, as well as practical experience. They work individually and in teams. They do internships and take field trips. They work with some of the brightest, most successful minds in the field.

“In the MRED program we’re teaching future developers to consider a broad range of site design and business issues in every single decision they make,” says Janice Schach, dean of the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities. “Building a great community means envisioning a place where people can live healthy lives in harmony with nature. It means creating spaces for people to be happy and prosper. It’s much more than just cutting roads, clearing trees and constructing buildings.”

Build to suit

Highlights of the curriculum include the two-week Maymester field trip studying developments in Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island, Charleston, Beaufort and Hilton Head, prior to the required 10-week professional summer internship. Two students went to China this summer to work on a $5 billion master-planned community, while others interned in Colorado, Ohio, Florida and South Carolina. Students also work with developers for the final two classes, preparing feasibility analyses for actual deals involving master-planned/resort communities and commercial development.

Students attend professional real estate conferences including one week at the national Urban Land Institute conference, networking with the leading professionals in the development industry. Clemson is fortunate to have the immediate past chairman of the ULI among its alumni — Harry H. Frampton III ’67, who is a key supporter of the program and president of the Clemson University Foundation.
The program also sponsors the Charles Fraser Visiting Associates and Lecture Series honoring his legacy — the founder of modern-day Hilton Head Island as developer of Sea Pines and considered to be the creator of modern-day resorts in the United States.

Applicants have come from architecture, finance, construction, marketing, history, psychology, landscape architecture, political science and other diverse disciplines. They hail from as far away as Oregon, New York, Florida and points in between with a maximum 20 students admitted annually. Several have shifted to development in mid-career, including a retired police detective and a software specialist.

Location, location, location

The MRED program is the outgrowth of the Center for Real Estate Development. The center creates a rich research, teaching and public service resource for students, consumers and businesses in the state and region.

It has worked on an array of initiatives including analyzing future markets for downtown Greenville office developers, evaluating a mixed-use downtown project in North Augusta, preparing a land plan for an affordable housing development with an African American neighborhood in Anderson, and preparing a market overview for an 800-acre sustainable development in Greenville. It has also done research on eminent domain, big box stores, tax increment finance and Katrina redevelopment.

As the Center for Real Estate Development continues to grow, it will become a hub of information about real estate in the Southeast, a public service and research think tank encouraging responsible land use. Students, the development industry and government agencies will look to the center — not just for information, but for ideas and trends. Students in the MRED program are already serving as research analysts for the center.

“Development is a public-private partnership, and quality development requires integrating the perspectives of community, environment and economics,” says Farris. “We want our students to be great ‘Place Makers,’ not just builders of projects.”

Students from Clemson’s 2006 and 2007 Master of Real Estate Development program — the only real estate development graduate program in the nation that officially combines the disciplines of business and architecture in a joint degree — are pictured with program director Terry Farris.

Front row from left are Lee Helena, Justin Hirsch, Joshua Ropa, Charles Rulick, Shayda Pourmand, Debbi Schadel, Travis Rice, Terry Farris and O’Neil McCoy; center, Matt Fuller and Jason Armstrong; back row, Mark Stuermann, Drew Niederriter, Jason Tannery, Paul Nudelman, Sean Luther, Matt Phillips, Michael Freeman and Jack Miller. (Not pictured is Randy Cox.)

For more information on Clemson’s real estate development program, go online at www.clemson.edu/caah/pla/mred.