Real Estate in the W. P. Carey School of Business at ASU
WHY REAL ESTATE?
Real estate and construction represent more than 15 percent of the United States’ economy. The industry is as large as health care and larger than agriculture, government, manufacturing and arts/entertainment. As a profession, real estate is a complex web that includes development, design, engineering, construction, finance, marketing, property management, manufacturing and a host of supporting services businesses.
The Phoenix area is unique, known around the world for its climate and quality of life. Phoenix has exhibited dramatic and sustained economic growth for a century, with very few bumps in the economic cycles. Population of the metropolitan area has increased 66 percent between 1990 and 2004. Phoenix is a crucible for real estate development, innovation, and knowledge creation. These will continue to be important to our dynamic and changing regional and national society. This complex geographic area requires a multidisciplinary approach to teaching, research and applied problem solving with practitioners.
WHY NOW? WHY ASU?
The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University will be a world leader in real estate knowledge creation, education delivery and practitioner involvement.
In conjunction with other real estate initiatives at ASU, most notably MRED (Master's in Real Estate Development) in the School of Design, the W. P. Carey initiative will directly benefit the real estate industry - regionally, nationally and internationally. The center and programs in the W. P. Carey School of Business will support students and businesses alike through innovative and flexible curriculum, stimulated by rigorous research and community engagement.
Real Estate at W. P. Carey and ASU aligns the compelling challenges of the 21st century with the talents of a world-class urban university. The initiative will benefit our communities and change lives through education by:
- Contributing to knowledge of economic growth in the region and nation.
- Co-creating knowledge and industry understanding through the combined efforts of faculty and industry experts.
- Bringing together a diverse regional real estate community.
- Attracting talented academic and business leaders.
- Applying the latest technology and research to critical issues.
WHY NOW? WHY W. P. CAREY?
The real estate industry is in transition. Recent innovations include shifts in asset management, new methods for valuation, novel approaches to financing and securitization, innovative approaches to real asset strategy formation and implementation, evolving models for community development, technologies enabling larger-scale developments and consolidation of a fragmented industry.
To generate returns, these changes demand a sophisticated level of management training as well as the latest financial methods and tools. Real estate professionals today also need a multidisciplinary education that allows them to cultivate a diverse set of management skills—project management; risk and decision analysis, entrepreneurship and business planning; skill in setting goals and assessments; city and regional planning; architecture and design; construction; negotiations; and real estate law. Real estate finance represents a substantial segment of the value chain – some estimates are as high as 80 percent. In this environment, four program components will provide the foundation for the W. P. Carey real estate program and the success of its graduates at high levels in the real estate industry. Those elements are:
- The primary business skills acquired in the core of the W. P. Carey MBA program.
- A sound understanding of the principles of finance and the latest financial innovations.
- Training in the primary business aspects of real estate.
- Exposure to the most important, relevant aspects of design, construction and law.
Courses in the W. P. Carey School of Business will be taught by faculty who are among the leading faculty worldwide in real estate, finance, marketing, supply chain management, accounting, and management. The program will rely on extensive participation from the local, regional, and national community of real estate practitioners both in the classroom and through field study projects that address real-world consulting problems.
The department of finance is ranked 16th in the world in research and knowledge creation. In addition, Dr. Crocker Liu, formerly at NYU, joins the W. P. Carey department of finance faculty as the first recipient of the McCord Chair in Real Estate and Professor of Finance. Dr. Liu is the single most cited academic in the investments side of real estate and is co-editor of the top journal in real estate, Real Estate Economics. Dr. Liu received his B.B.A in Real Estate and Finance at the University of Hawaii, his M.S. in Real Estate under Professor James A. Graaskamp at the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D. in Real Estate and Finance under the supervision of Professor Vijay Bawa from the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Liu has extensive industry experience, including marketing/selling real estate, on the debt side with Prudential, and strong knowledge on the equity side as well.
COMPETING WORLDWIDE
The greater Phoenix area's resources and growth inspire us to join the small group of world-class institutions in real estate. The W. P. Carey School of Business is committed to building a world-class research center and program capable of rivaling the best in the industry within five years.
Many business schools have real estate programs that teach trade practices. Only a few are recognized as thought leaders. ASU will join the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the Haas School at the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that are recognized as are the nation's thought leaders.
Many of these and other important capabilities are already resident at ASU. With small additions to top-tier faculty, we will expand degree and undergraduate programs and create a world-class research center.
FACULTY LEADERSHIP
World-class scholars inspire great students to become great leaders. The primary homes of the nation’s best real estate research and teaching programs reside in business school settings. The W. P. Carey School of Business will appoint the best nationally recognized thought leaders to its real estate faculty. These scholars will join colleagues who recognize the importance of the business school's national leadership in real estate. The addition of new scholars will bolster a business school faculty already ranked in the top 10 percent worldwide for size and quality of research.
