Patrick kayser
Patrick Kayser is a senior specialist in urban and regional planning in the College of Social Sciences and minor in real estate investment management in the Grand College of Business.
Mitchell Pitts is a junior specializing in finance in the Broad College of Business.
Architecture, real estate and business have always been interests for us before we became Spartans. We grew up witnessing Detroit’s momentum of development and renovation, helping to revitalize the city after its bankruptcy. And we’ve seen a growing buzz around the Lansing area, including the introduction of skyscrapers in East Lansing. These experiences have inspired us all to pursue a career in real estate now at MSU.
The Large College minor in real estate investment management has opened many doors with incredible opportunities, such as providing us with a strong network of other key industry professionals. Most notably, the miner has allowed us to participate in many different contests including the STR Market Research Contest, the Hospitality Asset Managers Association Contest, and most recently the Mulroy Challenge.
Mitchell pitts
The Mulroy Challenge was special because our team showed the diverse backgrounds and strong community of MSU, bringing together four students of different majors and minors to collaborate and compete. The challenge was to develop a commercial building that theoretically offers good financial returns, while offering community development programs. The competition was tough and lasted for many hours, but with just one week what our team accomplished was great – and we learned a lot in the short time we had.
The teachers who volunteered their time to help us work on our presentation skills really made an impact. Jim Anhut, our advisor; Kymm Hadlock, professor of finance who teaches business presentation skills; and Jim Van Ravensway, professor specializing in real estate development, each volunteered their time to listen to our presentation and offer advice on how to be successful. This collaboration to see the success of Spartan was truly amazing.
While we didn’t win the trophy, we learned a lot about real estate and community development in a fun and exciting way outside of the classroom. The Mulroy Challenge has given us the confidence to develop world-class buildings for the future that focus on strong financial returns, sustainability and helping the community. The Spartans will surely take part in the Mulroy Challenge again – in the hopes of bringing home some gold in the future – as those competitions and experiences, especially through the real estate miner, are worth the challenge.
