Center for Investment and Real Estate Finance picks up steam

FORT COLLINS — In October of 2000 – with a vision and an $80,000 grant in hand – the Center for Investment and Real Estate Finance at Colorado State University was founded. Nearly four years later, the center has 167 members, hosts numerous events and will soon fill a $1.5 million endowed chair.
The $80,000 grant was awarded by the Mortgage Bankers Association after receiving an endorsement from the Colorado Mortgage Lenders Association. The national association directed that the grant be used to upgrade and build a strong real estate finance program at CSU.
An advisory board of local and national professionals formed to review the existing real estate program and make recommendations on how it should be improved.
?A lot of centers around the country are focused on graduate education. We?re focused on undergraduate education,? said Mike Rosser, vice president of United Guaranty Residential Insurance and former co-chair of the advisory board. ?Our vision was to create a first-rate undergraduate degree program at CSU.?
Rosser said there was a lack of education for those in the field who didn?t have a master?s degree.
?The industry does a lot of training, but not a lot of education,? he said.
After four years of grant funding, the center now faces the challenge of funding itself with memberships and events. A regular membership to the center is $150 per year. Discounted corporate memberships are available to companies who have five or more employees who want to become members. Of the center?s 167 members, 78 are part of a corporate membership.

Come a long way
The center has come a long way since its founding. As recently as last year there were only 63 members. The center is also taking part in and creating new events to raise awareness and financing.
This fall will witness the creation of a real estate club, which will give students and professionals a chance to mingle, network and share ideas. There will be six meetings every year: two at CSU, two in the surrounding community and two in Denver.
?Through the interaction with professionals, our students learn many skills that go beyond textbook education in the classroom,? said Allison Robin, administrator for the center.
The real estate club will hold its first meeting early in September. A specific date has not yet been announced. Approximately 20 students and 20 professionals committed to help establish the club. The format of the meetings will be decided at the first gathering.
In addition to these meetings, the center will host the annual Northern Colorado Real Estate Conference. The conference is in its eighth year, and the center has hosted it for three years.
The panels at this years event are ?The Retail Realignment of Northern Colorado? and ?Mayor?s Forum: Retail Impact Along the Front Range.?
The event is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 28, from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the University Park Holiday Inn in Fort Collins. Registration can be done online at www.realestate.colostate.edu. The cost for members is $37.50, and the cost for non-members before Sept. 14 is $75. After that date, the cost is $90. Sponsorships are available.
Following the conference, a three-hour real estate commission update course will be held. The course is free for center members and members of Northern Colorado Commercial Association of Realtors. All others will be charged $35.
This year, the center is kicking off an annual golf tournament to raise money for the center. The tournament will be held on Monday, Sept. 20, at Fox Acres Country Club in Red Feather Lakes. On-site registration begins at 10 a.m. The cost to play is $250 per person or $1,000 for a team of four.
Registration forms for the tournament can be downloaded from www.realestate.colostate.edu and then mailed or faxed to the center. The center?s goal is to register 112 players. Approximately 35 people have already registered.
Sponsorships are available for this event as well. Fort Collins Real Estate committed to the towel sponsorship and Lithia Dodge committed a Dodge Ram as a hole-in-one prize.

Real estate-savvy community
All of these events bring the center closer to reaching its ultimate goal of creating a real estate-savvy community.
?We?re trying to combine and marry all areas of the university involved with real estate,? said Eric Holsapple, interim director of the center, who is also an instructor and co-owner of Loveland Commercial LLC.
Holsapple said after accomplishing that goal at the university level, the center?s objective would be to then do it at the community level.
This goal is already making an impact. Nathan Kline, a recent CSU graduate and a broker with Loveland Commercial, said he owes the center?s events for his career path decision.
?For me, it opened my eyes to what kind of jobs there were in real estate,? he said.
Kline was working at a bank with plans to continue down that path. But during the fall semester of his senior year, he was a student of Holsapple, who required his students to attend center events where they could network with real estate professionals. Kline continued to attend the events during the spring semester because they were valuable networking tools.
The recent graduate said he is not a member of the center yet but plans to become one in the future. He is staying involved, however, helping to coordinate the upcoming golf tournament.
The center?s biggest accomplishment is the creation of an endowed chair. In May, Holsapple and Don Marostica, owners of Loveland Commercial LLC, donated $1.5 million to the College of Business to install a real estate endowed chair.
In theory, the chair will serve as director of the center, teach courses and do research.
The search for someone to fill the chair continues. Holsapple said he feels the best candidate will have a broad range of experience, have inter-disciplinary skills and be of nationally recognized caliber.
The committee to find a suitable person for the position is comprised of four professors, who conducted a nationwide search by soliciting nominations from respected scholars and practitioners and posted the position announcement with major professional societies and trade associations.
?We are currently in the process of narrowing down the list of candidates, and we hope to invite finalists to campus for interviews early in the fall semester,? said John Olienyk, professor and committee member. He said the group hopes to have a decision made by mid-fall semester.
The person chosen for the position will have a tenured professorship in the finance and real estate department and will receive supplemental income from the endowment.
The CSU Foundation permanently invests endowment funds. The interest generated by the investment is used to support the chair. Because the principle amount is never drawn upon, the endowments supply continuous funding.

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