Winter Newsletter 2021
The Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center would like to thank our Research Sponsors and Sustaining Members whose generous contributions have made this year’s programming possible. As we say goodbye to 2021 we take a moment to reflect on some of the highlights from the past year:
Department News + Research · Faculty & Staffing Changes · Members’ Meetings 2022 · Expansion of Global Programming · Research Sponsor Events · Changes to the Zell/Lurie Staff · Student Activities · Other Events in 2021 · Upcoming Events · Current Members
Department News & Research
Below are highlights from the Wharton Real Estate faculty.
Sophie Calder-Wang
Assistant Professor of Real Estate, Assistant Professor of Business Economics & Public Policy, Assistant Professor of Finance
- Professor Calder-Wang co-authored a paper titled “And the Children Shall Lead: Gender Diversity and Performance in Venture Capital”.
- Professor Calder-Wang is currently co-authoring a paper under review on Unobserved Heterogeneity, State Dependence, and Health Plan Choices.
- Professor Calder- Wang is currently working on a paper on The Distributional Impact of the Sharing Economy on the Housing Market.
- Professor Calder-Wang is currently co-authoring a working paper on Diversity and Performance in Entrepreneurial Teams.
- Professor Calder-Wang is currently co-authoring a working paper on Venture Capital’s Me Too Moment.
Gilles Duranton
Dean’s Chair in Real Estate Professor
- Professor Duranton spoke at a the LAGV Conference, Central Bank of Colombia/EAFIT Congress, the Inaugural Johannes Brocker Lecture of German Regional Science Association, and the Jinan-SMU-ABFER Urban Conference.
- Professor Duranton’s The Production Function for Housing: Evidence from France was publsihed in the Journal of Political Economy.
- Professor Duranton was a keynote speaker at the LACEA/LAMES Conference.
- Professor Duranton’s piece “Transportation Infrastructure in the US,” was featured in the New York Times.
- Professor Duranton’s Delineating Urban Areas Using Building Density, was published in the Journal of Urban Economics.
- Professor Duranton’s Classifying locations and delineating space: An introduction was published in the Journal of Urban Economics.
Fernando Ferreira
C.F. Koo Professor, Professor of Real Estate, Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy
- Professor Ferreira co-authored a paper titled “Estimating the Economic Value of Zoning Reform.”
- Professor Ferreira presented research from his paper in the following places: NBER Urban Economics, Stanford SITE, North American meeting of the Econometric Society, FGV-SP, SBE Applied Economics, LACEA-LAMES annual meeting, National Tax Association annual meeting, NBER Public Economics, and Urban Economics Association annual meeting.
Joe Gyourko
Martin Bucksbaum Professor, Professor of Real Estate, Professor of Finance, Professor of Business Economics & Public Policy, Nancy A. Nasher and David Haemisegger Director of the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center
- Professor Gyourko gave the Keynote Address titled “Housing Affordability and Inequality: Thoughts on the Role of Public Policy,” at the Regional Disparities & Economic Policy, Berlin, Germany (virtual conference and presentation).
- Professor Gyourko helped organize a conference on “The Future of Work and the Office” for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on September 30, 3021.
- Professor Gyourko was named a Senior Fellow of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research (ABFER) in recognition of his research into Chinese housing and commercial property markets.
- Professor Gyourko’s The Local Residential Land Use Regulatory Environment Across U.S. Housing Markets: Evidence From a New Wharton Index, was published in the Journal of Urban Economics.
- Professor Gyourko authored a paper titled “Anatomy of the Beginning of the Housing Boom Across U.S. Metropolitan Areas.” This paper is forthcoming in the Review of Economics and Statistics.
- Professor Gyourko authored a paper titled “The Impact of Local Residential Land Use Restrictions on Land Values Across and Within Single Family Housing Markets.” This paper is forthcoming in the Journal of Urban Economics.
Jessie Handbury
Assistant Professor of Real Estate
- Professor Handbury started as an Associate Editor at the Review of Economic Statistics and the Journal of International Economics and joined the Board of Directors for AREUEA (the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association).
- Professor Handbury has been giving academic seminars at UBC, the Atlanta Fed, INRAE, Nuremberg, the Federal Reserve Board, Columbia, MIT, UC Berkeley Real Estate, CU Boulder, Duke, and Northwestern.
- Professor Handbury published a paper on School Food Policy Affects Everyone: Retail Responses to the National School Lunch Program. This Paper got coverage on Quartz Business Media and and was the Vox paper of the week.
- Professor Handbury co-authored a forthcoming paper titled “Measuring Movement and Social Contact with Smartphone Data: A Real-Time Application to COVID-19.”
Benjamin Keys
Rowan Family Foundation Associate Professor; Associate Professor of Real Estate
- Professor Keys gave presentations to Fannie Mae, the U.S. Treasury, and the NBER Corporate Finance Summer Institute.
- Professor Keys’ paper on Investment over the Business Cycle: Insights from College Major Choice is now forthcoming in the Journal of Labor Economics.
- Professor Keys co-authored a working paper on The Cost of Consumer Collateral: Evidence from Bunching.
- Professor Keys co-authored a working paper on Global Capital and Local Assets: House Prices, Quantitites, and Elasticities.
Susan M. Wachter
Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate
- Professor Wachter was recently invited to join the Advisory Board of the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Commerce.
- Professor Wachter’s The Great American Housing Bubble: What Went Wrong and How We Can Protect Ourselves in the Future (Harvard University Press, 2020), won the Axiom best real estate book award for 2021 and was featured in a New York Times article on how to navigate the Covid-19 crisis.
- Professor Wachter presented her findings from the book to the FDIC in September 2021.
View a full list of Wharton Real Estate faculty working papers.
Faculty & Staffing Changes
Sophie Calder-Wang
The Real Estate department welcomed new faculty member Sophie Calder-Wang. Sophie is Assistant Professor of Real Estate, Assistant Professor of Business Economics & Public Policy, and Assistant Professor of Finance.
Marja Hoek-Smit
Marja Hoek-Smit, Director and Founder of the International Housing Finance Program at the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center has retired from the Center. Despite retiring from the Center, Marja will continue to teach at Wharton on a part-time basis.
Faculty Awards
Zell/Lurie Associate Director, Asuka Nakahara received the Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence by Non-Standing Faculty this Spring. This award is the University’s highest honor for teaching by non-tenure track faculty. To receive this award is a tremendous achievement and testament to Asuka’s dedication to mentorship and teaching.
Members’ Meetings in 2021
Twice a year, Zell/Lurie hosts Members’ Meetings where our members and their guests gather to enjoy talks by industry leaders and network. The Spring 2021 and Fall 2021 Meetings were held as virtual teleconferences.
Spring Members’ Meeting
April 30, 2021
Fall Members’ Meeting
October 22, 2021
Awards from the Spring Meeting
Every year at the Spring Members’ Meeting, awards are given to deserving students who have exhibited strong leadership and academic prowess. Additional recognition is given to faculty award winners, as well as a list of members and non-members who went out of their way to connect with our students in the virtual classroom, on a career panel, as mentors, or as special visitors. To view the entire 2021 award booklet, please click here.
Expansion of Global Programming
On November 10, 2020, Zell/Lurie members and Europe’s most influential real estate professionals tuned in for the seventh annual Grayken Program in International Real Estate London event. This year’s event was hosted over Zoom. James Seppala, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone, facilitated a Fireside Chat with Chris Grigg, Chief Executive of British Land. The program concluded with a panel on the future of offices featuring panelists Ekene Ezulike, Managing Director, Global Head of Corporate Services and Corporate Real Estate at, Morgan Stanley; Adam Shah, Head of Asset Management for Europe at Blackstone; and François Trausch, Global CEO of Allianz Real Estate.
On December 1, 2020, Zell/Lurie held its third annual Grayken Program in International Real Estate Asia event over Zoom. Andrew Staples, Director of Research and Outreach at the Hinrich Foundation kicked off the short program with a keynote speech. A panel on How U.S. – China Relations Inform Investing in Asia Post-COVID and the Future of Office followed featuring, panelists Rushabh Desai, Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Real Estate Asia Pacific; Jeffrey Perlman, Managing Director and Head of Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific Real Estate at Warburg Pincus; and Jon Paul Toppino, Group President of PAG.
The Center is delighted to announce that the eighth annual Grayken Program in International Real Estate will be held on May 18, 2022, at the Royal Automobile Club in London.
Research Sponsor Events
Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, met with Research Sponsors before the Spring 2021 Members’ Meeting on the evening of April 29, 2021. Khan Academy is a nonprofit educational organization that offers free lessons in math, science and humanities in multiple languages, as well as tools for parents, teachers and districts to track student progress.
Dr. Kelly Hereid, Director of Catastrophe R&D, Liberty Mutual, met with Research Sponsors before the Fall 2021 Members’ Meeting on the evening of October 21, 2021. Dr. Kelly Hereid lead a discussion titled, “Changing Tail Risks and Their Implications for Business Owners.”
Changes to the Zell/Lurie Advisory Board
In Spring 2021 Ronald J. Kravit, Senior Managing Director at Tracker Capital Management, LLC, assumed the position of Chair to the Advisory Board, and Andrew Jonas, Co-Head Real Estate Department at Goldman Sachs, became Vice-Chair.
The Center would like to recognize our previous chair Matthew J. Lustig, Chairman of Investment Banking, North America and Head of Real Estate & Lodging at Lazard, for his tenure as Chair of the Zell/Lurie Advisory Board. Matt has provided continuous support and displayed exemplary leadership throughout the past three years.
Student Programming and Activities
Ballard Executive Program
The Ballard Executive Speaker Program Zell/Lurie’s Ballard Executive Speaker program remains extremely popular among our students. In 2021, twelve Research Sponsors visited campus as Ballard Executives. These informal discussions are of tremendous value to our students, as indicated by their attendance and active participation. The Ballard Executive Speakers of 2021 were:
| February 3, 2021 | Alan Feldman | Almanac Realty Investors |
| February 17, 2021 | Adam Gallistel | GIC Real Estate Inc |
| March 4, 2021 | Jacob Reiter | Verde Capital Corp |
| March 17, 2021 | Martin Kravit | Royal Abstract |
| April 15, 2021 | Gillian Cho | Amherst |
| April 7, 2021 | Adam Schwartz | Angelo Gordon |
| April 30, 2021 and September 30, 2021 | Marty Burger | Silverstein Properties |
| October 5, 2021 | Saul Goldstein | ActivumSG Capital Management |
| October 12, 2021 | Andy Jonas | Goldman, Sachs & Co. LLC |
| October 27, 2021 | Ron Kravit | Tracker Capital Management |
| November 9, 2021 | Roy March | Eastdil Secured |
| November 17, 2021 | Jacob Reiter | Verde Capital Corp |
| December 1, 2021 | Neil H. Shah | Hersha Hotels & Resorts |
ARGUS Training
Zell/Lurie funded a virtual ARGUS training on November 13 & 14, 2021. This year’s two-day training was based on both student and member feedback on the importance of ARGUS experience for students entering the real estate industry. This was the fifth consecutive year Zell/Lurie funded Argus training.
Mentor and Mentee Program 2021
This year, Zell/Lurie matched 87 students to 79 volunteer career mentors. The Career Mentor Program remains popular among students, with participants from all five of the Zell/Lurie supported real estate clubs.
Student Real Estate Clubs
Zell/Lurie funds and assists the five University of Pennsylvania Real Estate Clubs. In 2021, the Real Estate Clubs kept up with case competitions, domestic treks, campus events, and more:
Highlights from the MBA Real Estate Club
On April 2021, the Wharton School took first place at the University of Miami’s Impact Investing in Commercial Real Estate Case Competition. The Wharton team, comprised of three graduate students and one undergraduate student, placed first out of 14 teams. Their winning project “17th Street Crossing” proposed a business and community hub that would catalyze an innovation ecosystem in North Philadelphia, providing long-term economic and workforce development solutions.
After University travel restrictions were lifted this semester, the Wharton MBA club began to schedule numerous treks and case competitions. On October 8, 2021, The Wharton Real Estate Club traveled to New York City. Club members were able to take a tour of Hudson yards and were hosted by Related and Hines. Afterward, the Club hosted a happy hour with alumni based in New York City.
Highlights from the Undergraduate Real Estate Club
On November 5, 2021, The Wharton Undergraduate Real Estate Club traveled to New York to partake in small-group conversations with industry leaders from Brookfield, Silverstein Properties, and Vornado Realty Trust.
Highlights from the Penn Student Women in Real Estate
The Penn Women in Real Estate (PSWiRE) Club hosted its second annual Spring Symposium in March 2021. This year’s event focused on real estate disruptions and featured a variety of panels on topics including diversity & inclusion, market outlook, entrepreneurship, and proptech. Speakers included: Cia Buckley Marakovits, President & Chief Investment Officer of Dune Real Estate Partners; Anar Chudgar, Managing Director at Artemis Real Estate Partners; Olivia John, Founder of Osso Capital; and Jami Passer, Chief Investment Officer at EDENS.
Other Events
The Eric and Beth Schlager Lecture on Entrepreneurship Series
The 10th Annual Eric and Beth Schlager Lecture Series on Real Estate Entrepreneurship featured Ronald J. Kravit, Senior Managing Director, Tracker Capital Management; Vice-Chair, Advisory Board, Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center at the Wharton School. The event was held virtually over Zoom on February 23, 2021, with both members and students in attendance. Mr. Kravit provided students with career advice and insight into multiple sectors of the real estate industry.
20th Annual Career Fair
The Center hosted its first-ever virtual Career Fair on January 22, 2021. This year, 65 companies attended the Zell/Lurie Career Fair, held virtually through VFairs. The Center would like to thank the companies listed below for their participation.
Upcoming Events in 2022
- Career Fair: The Center will be hosting an in-person Career Fair on Friday, January 21, 2022, at Houston Hall. Registration for this event is open. Please click here to register.
- Virtual International Career Fair: We are excited to announce the first virtual Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center International Career Fair. The intent of this virtual, asynchronous event is to allow international companies and other companies that are unable to make it to campus for our in-person Career Fair to participate, and to allow students access to a greater range of companies.
- Spring Members Meeting: The Center will be holding the Spring Members’ Meeting on April 21 and 22, 2022, at the Comcast Technology Center. Details will follow as we get closer to the event.
- Grayken Program: The Center is delighted to announce that the eighth annual Grayken Program in International Real Estate will be held on May 18, 2022, at the Royal Automobile Club in London.
Current Members
Below are the lists of Research Sponsors, Sustaining Members, Associate Members and new members of 2021.
Previous Winter Newsletters
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