Creative Opportunities in Real Estate (CORE) Competition

We are proud to celebrate the incredible success of the inaugural year of the NYU Schack CORE (Creative Opportunities in Real Estate) Competition, made possible by the concept and support from Dean Marc Norman, Chaired by Matthew Kwatinetz, and administered with support from Graduate

This first-of-its-kind competition challenged student teams to analyze The Smile, a multifamily property in East Harlem, in collaboration with Blumenfeld Development Group (BDG), and to propose creative, financially grounded strategies to enhance the asset’s performance and impact. To further strengthen students’ learning experience and entries, NYU Schack hosted four educational workshops on key topics including Market Analysis by Professor Joshua Kahr, the Business Plan by Professor Stephen Soler, Financial Analysis by Professor Stephanie Wright, and the Presentation by Professor Russle Bates.

The response exceeded all expectations. We received 49 team registrations, representing 200+ students from real estate, MBA, architecture, and business programs representing 16 universities across the United States and Canada. From these, 24 full submissions were evaluated and narrowed to three outstanding finalist teams with help from our incredible screener judges, Mecky Adnani, Ronnie Gross, Tim Savage, Barry Hersh, Rob Daurio, and Merrie Frankel.

Congratulations to our winners:

• First Place: Baruch College & City College of New York proposing unit reconfigurations to create roommate-ready two-bedrooms, the sale of the commercial condominium, and monetization of amenities. Congratulations Maria Manukovskaya, Samantha Brownlie, Viktar Kolatau, Yancel Tejada, Kareena Ramsaran, and advisor Robert Buchsbaum!
• Second Place: Columbia GSAPP with a proposal centered on converting units to Supportive Housing. Congratulations to Stephanie Do, Jules Jacolot, Phil Martel, Olivia Van Wersch, Ephrem Yared, and advisors Alex Barrett and Daphne Rubin-Vega.
• Third Place: NYU Schack recommending the sale of the commercial condominium alongside expense optimization and refined marketing strategies. Congratulations to Vivian Pham, Jakob Hunter, Manuela Bomeny, Jordan Abrams, and advisor Anthony Navarro.
   

These three finalists presented their proposals in person at The Smile before an exceptional jury of industry leaders: Whitney Acaro (RXR), Pierre Downing (Kalel Companies), Toni Griffin (Just City Lab / Harvard GSD), Nancy Ruddy (CetraRuddy), and Marc Norman (Ideas and Action / NYU Schack).

The NYU Schack Creative Opportunities in Real Estate (CORE) Competition is a collegiate real estate case competition focusing on maximizing the potential of an existing site or asset. Through a sequential process of getting a briefing on the asset, analyzing space and asset markets, building a business plan, performing a financial analysis, and honing a presentation and investment memo, multidisciplinary teams will identify and present innovative and creative solutions to improve a project’s financial performance and social impact.

Virtual Workshop Sessions

Teams may participate in optional virtual workshops hosted by esteemed NYU Schack faculty and professionals covering the content and quality expected of the team’s process, analysis, and deliverables. The workshops will be recorded and available to the teams afterwards for a limited amount of time.

• Thursday, October 9 - Introduction of Asset and Q&A Session by BDG and BIG
  The opportunity to meet a member of the development and design team for an overview of the project and ask questions to flush out the understanding of the project.
• Thursday, October 16 - Workshop 1: Market Analysis
  An overview of the various markets the project operates within and how to analyze those to uncover weaknesses and opportunities.
• Thursday, October 23 - Workshop 2: Business Plan Memo
  An overview of a real estate business plan and the expected opportunity and risk analysis.
• Thursday, October 30 - Workshop 3: Proforma & Financial Analysis
  An overview of financial analysis and the expected format of a proforma.
• Thursday, November 6 - Workshop 4: The Pitch - Presentation Format
  An overview of the purpose, format, and design quality of a memo, financial summary, and the presentation.
   

Parameters

Teams will be expected to deliver an investment memo, financial summary, and presentation outlining the following:

• Analysis of the Asset
  • The project’s history and current condition 
  • Potential problems & opportunities
• Market Analysis
  • Current market cycle conditions and their impacts
    • (ex. real estate space and asset markets, business market, economic market, financial market, etc.)
  • Highest and best use
  • Supply and demand dynamics for that product in this location
  • Assumption justifications
• Business Plan
  • Proposed Solutions
  • Feasibility & Design Studies
  • Risks and Mitigants
  • Sources and uses budget
  • Proforma
  • Path to stabilization
  • Capital sources and return expectations
     

Team Specifications and Guidelines

• Three to five currently enrolled students (graduate and/or undergraduate, full-time and/or part-time).
• Team members must be multidisciplinary representing at minimum development, investment, and design disciplines. These disciplines may be demonstrated by current degree enrollment, past/undergraduate degrees, or industry experience.
• Students with various types of experience must designate which one discipline they will represent.
• For the 2025 competition, we also recommend teams to include a legal and affordable housing discipline, though these are optional.
• Two advisors: one faculty (required) and one professional (optional).
• Teams may be composed of students from different educational institutions.
   

Interested in Participating? Here is your to do list:

• Complete the Application of Intent (10/3)
  • Team Members
    • Development
    • Investment
    • Design
    • Legal (Optional)
    • Affordable Housing (Optional)
  • Educational Institution(s)
  • Faculty Advisor (required)
  • Industry Advisor (optional)
  • Open to Graduate, Undergraduate, and MBA students
  • RSVP to workshops you plan to attend.
• Finalize your team while beginning the competition
• Final Registration Deadline: Update of Team and Advisor (10/31)
   

Competition Rules

Anonymity
In order to ensure the integrity of judging, all teams will be randomly assigned team numbers to mask their identities. Teams may not identify their academic institutions or sponsors in any submission materials, presentation materials, or presentation attire until the final reception.

Academic Honesty
Teams must ensure that all presentations, work product, and other materials that they submit are their own original work and not that of outside professionals, academic or industry advisors, or other individuals. Team members must additionally ensure that all material they submit is accurate to the best of their knowledge.
 

Confidentiality of Materials

Ownership of Materials
Each member of each team acknowledges and agrees that, by submitting any material, idea, concept, theory, model, analysis, data or information to the Competition, they are releasing the same into the public domain and granting all persons the right to use the same for any and all purposes, without any conditions (except to the extent such conditions are required by applicable law). Without limiting the foregoing, no member of any team reserves any rights with respect to any analysis, charts, descriptions, depictions, data, models, theories, proposed uses or any other aspect of the Materials, ideas or concepts submitted or presented in connection with the Competition.

Questions and Clarification
Questions that arise before or after the Competition has been begun must be submitted via email to the Competition organizers at Schack.CORE@nyu.edu

Reasons for Disqualification
Violations of any rules set by the Competition or failure to form an appropriate team may result in a school’s disqualification from the current and/or future competitions.
 

Judging

• Both the preliminary judging and final judging panel will be composed of industry and academic professionals in the real estate development, investment, and design industries from the private, public, and academic sectors.
• Results of the preliminary judging will be announced on November 28, 2025
• The top four teams will present a 15 minute presentation followed by a 10 minute Q&A in random order to a live jury of real estate professionals in New York City.
• The winners will be announced at an awards reception to follow.
   

Prizes

1st Place Prize                        $10,000
2nd Place Prize                      $5,000
3rd Place Prize                       $2,500

Additional Highlights
** Overnight stay in New York City
** Winning team will receive Conference Passes for their team to NYU Schack Real Estate Conference
 

Schedule

• Friday, October 3 - Application of Intent Deadline
• Thursday, October 9 - Asset Q&A Session
• Thursday, October 16 - Workshop 1: Market Analysis
• Thursday, October 23 - Workshop 2: Business Plan Memo
• Thursday, October 30 - Workshop 3: Proforma & Financial Analysis
• Friday, October 31 - Final Team Registration Deadline
• Thursday, November 6 - Workshop 4: The Pitch - Presentation Format
• Tuesday, November 18 - Submission
• Friday, November 28 - Finalist Announcement
• Saturday, December 13 - Final Presentations & Reception
   

Contact Information

NYU SPS Schack Institute of Real Estate
Creative Opportunities in Real Estate (CORE)
20 West 43rd Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10036
Schack.CORE@nyu.edu