COMM 408 - Real Estate Development

This course is designed to give students grounding in the principles of real estate development, combining theoretical treatment of development and real estate markets with tools and techniques to analyze the attractiveness of sites for real estate development and the projects themselves. The first half of the course focuses on building an understanding the theoretical framework for development: real estate economics and real estate cycles. The second half of the course follows the stages in the development process, with more of a focus on the practical issues of selecting a site, designing a project, negotiating the maze of government regulation, and financing the acquisition of the land and construction of the structure. The focus of the course is a student prepared development project proposal. Guest lectures by real estate professionals will augment the academic material with real world applications. In addition to lectures the course will include several cases and student presentations.

Prerequisite: COMM 298 and one of COMM 295, ECON 201, ECON 301.