Cornell University has won the 6th annual ICSC & Cornell International Retail Real Estate Case Competition, hosted by ICSC and Cornell University SC Johnson College of Business’ Center for Real Estate and Finance. Cornell’s Angad Jaspal, Angela Lu, Jai Patel and Carol Wang will receive $5,000 as a team. KTH Royal Institute of Technology came in second, winning $3,000, and Indiana University third, collecting $2,000.

Five days in advance of their presentations, the teams received a real estate case study, and they presented on Friday, April 16. Other competitors were Marquette University, Southern Methodist University, The University of Texas at Austin, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Michigan and Villanova University.

While the case study was tweaked from reality, it’s based on a property in the Iberia region that ActivumSG bought in 2015. The idea was that the new owner could improve the property’s net operating income even while offering a lower-rent alternative for tenants to the high street about a kilometer away. Activum succeeded, including by upgrading food-and-beverage tenants to midscale, trendy offerings, and it received a solid offer in early 2020 from a Swiss fund. However, as COVID-19 hit the market, the prospective buyer and a few tenants pulled out, and Activum is back to the drawing board with the property.

That’s where the case competition picked up. Stirling Properties founder and past chairman Jimmy Maurin, a judge for the competition, said: “I really like the case. Real world. The students had to deal with the COVID earthquake, something very real in their minds.”

Click here to watch the final round of the competition, including the final three presentations and a discussion of the case study from Activum senior expert for Iberia Brian Betel, who manages the asset on which the case study is based. Betel’s discussion begins at 2 hours and 34 minutes in, followed by the announcement of the winner.

Joining Betel and Maurin as judges were The Instant Group Americas CEO Joe Brady, Cushman & Wakefield Americas retail business development and strategy lead Sara Gougarty, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield senior vice president of development Jocelyn Gubler, Kroger vice president of corporate real estate Nick Hodge, Abbell Associates CEO Liz Holland, Life Time executive vice president of real estate and development Parham Javaheri, The Lamy Group and Exeter Retail DataHub founder and CEO Kenneth Lamy, JLL capital markets managing director Bryan Ley, Retail Property Solutions principal Beverly Ricks and ShopCore Properties vice president of leasing for specialty centers Nina Rogers.