Ninetwo Development Group, LLC won the semi-annual CCIM – John Vogel – UTSA Project Competition Award for fall 2011. The award is given out every semester to the winning team from the College of Business’ Real Estate Finance and Development Program (REFD). The teams are composed of students enrolled in the REFD capstone class, FIN 4733 Principle of Real Estate Development.

With the help of mentors from local real estate community professionals, the teams had to use knowledge from the REFD program to develop a commercial real estate project under one of the commercial real estate disciplines of multifamily (apartment complexes), industrial (warehouses), retail (shopping centers), office, or a mixture of two or more of the disciplines (mixed use).

After each group chose which type of development to build, they then had to find a piece of property in the local area on which their proposed development would be located. Throughout the semester, the teams worked with their mentors to help them solve some of the many complex issues associated with developing a new real estate venture.

Ninetwo Development Group, LLC, proposed building a 264-unit class-A multifamily development near Culebra Road and Loop 1604 called The Plaza at Alamo Ranch at a cost of $23 million.

The proposals included an executive summary, site location, market research, engineering issues, development costs, architectural site plans and renderings, pro forma financial analysis, and an exit strategy. In essence, the proposals had to be put together as if each team were actually presenting to a group of real estate investors or banking industry professionals.

Five teams participated in this semester’s competition in the University Center Ballroom. At the competition, a panel of 15 judges from the local real estate community critiqued each 20-minute proposal to determine a winner. After each proposal, the judges then questioned the teams on any problems they identified in the proposal. The teams did well if they answered the question by demonstrating that the problem had already been addressed and corrected accordingly.

Winning the competition challenging. Ninetwo Development did several things to set themselves apart from the other teams, and the judges were clearly impressed.

“I thought we were in the top three after the competition was over,” said Ninetwo team member Keith Puzz. “My team, including Jaime Oleszcovski, Jesus Navarro, Jacob Elizonda, and Angel Gutierrez, put a tremendous amount of effort into this project. We approached this project as if we were really going to go through with this as if we could get the financing. The thing that may have set us apart is that we researched every little detail, and I believe that helped us answer questions from the judges on their level. Also, every person on the team needs to be an extraordinary networker to set up interviews to make sure the development project is actually feasible and not just a fictitious project.”

Although Ninetwo Development won the competition, it was not easy for the judges to choose a winner. As the competition was fierce.

“The competition was very close this semester as all five teams delivered excellent presentations,” said Program Coordinator of UTSA’s Real Estate Finance and Development Program Laura Gilliland. “The determining factor in choosing the winning team was a combination of the accuracy of financial projections, use of supporting documentation, validity of assumptions, and professionalism of the presenters. Several of the judges stated that this was the most impressive competition to date and that the presentations continue to improve each semester.”

To learn more about UTSA’s REFD program and the CCIM competition, visit http://business.utsa.edu/refd/index.aspx.