California + Los Angeles + Office | December 5, 2022

UCLA Wins Silver Shovel at NAIOP’s Real Estate Challenge

UCLA’s student team of Sam Baughman, Nicholas Fong, Franco Mellone, Brad Schierhorn and Eli Watson has earned the Silver Shovel, defeating USC in the 25th NAIOP SoCal UCLA vs USC Real Estate Challenge. The Bruin’s Toro Garden proposal, encompassing life science facilities and CSU Dominguez Hills student housing at a 21-acre Prologis development site in Carson, CA, won the competition.

The event pits five-member graduate student teams from the Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business and the Lusk Center at USC’s Marshall School of Business and Price School of Public Policy in a battle to determine the highest and best use for a unique parcel of land.

To celebrate NAIOP’s 25th anniversary of the competition, the organization named two real estate icons as honorary coaches. Robert Hart, founder and CEO of TruAmerica Multifamily coached the winning UCLA team while Nadine Watt, CEO of Watt Capital Partners was the honorary coach for USC.

Connect

Inside The Story

NAIOP UCLA vs USC Real Estate ChallengeUCLA Ziman Center for Real EstateUSC Lusk Center for Real Estate

About Mark Nieto

Mark comes to ConnectCRE with an extensive background as a business and news reporter in San Francisco radio, as well as 35 years as a traffic reporter on several stations including KGO, KNBR, KCBS and KFRC. As a business reporter, Mark covered the tech world in Silicon Valley where he became familiar with real estate transactions in the hot Bay Area marketplace. He attended San Jose State University with a BA in Radio and TV Broadcasting and currently resides in the Lake Tahoe area where he gets to frequently enjoy all of his favorite activities: Golfing, Fishing, Hiking and Skiing.