Land Development Becomes a Class Act
At USC, the School of Urban and Regional Planning has given new meaning to the word real, especially as it applies to the real world of real estate.
It has launched an “earn-as-you-learn” class requiring an investment of $10,000 by 17 student partners in a joint venture to design, build, lease, manage and sell a half-acre site on Two Bunch Palms Trail in Desert Hot Springs.
Good luck, you say?
But if all goes well--a wistful admonition in any risk-taking real estate venture--their investment could increase to as much as $250,000, they believe.
They are near agreement with a retail tenant for about 3,200 square feet of space in a proposed build-to-suit building. And they expect to complete the project this fall--in time for the incoming class to look around for its own “Real Deal,” the name given to the project.
The undertaking is not all amateur night in the desert.
The students have an experienced developer, Robert T. Best, as general partner in their joint venture, the Trojan MRED Development Co. Best is president of Costa Mesa-based Westar Associates, shopping center specialists throughout Southern California for more than 12 years.
A graduate of the USC School of Business Administration, Best originally suggested the idea to Richard Peiser, academic director of the recently formed Master of Real Estate Development program at the school. They agreed that it would give the graduate students a chance to “put their learning on the line,” turning theory into successful ventures.
Ken Loesch is managing partner of the student entrepreneurs, and has already run into what might become a minor stumbling block--a public hearing ordered by the City of Desert Hot Springs. But the area immediately neighboring the Real Deal site has an existing shopping complex and a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet.
Loesch, 15 other young men and one woman are the student partners. Without identifying the amounts invested by any of the co-investors, he said their respective stakes ranged from $300 to $1,500.
Pointedly, he suggested that the amount of the respective investments were most likely based upon their “faith” in the venture, coinciding with an introduction to risk-taking.
He is an obvious booster of the plan as a realistic adjunct to the curriculum: “The Real Deal has helped us appreciate the uniqueness of real estate deals. The information that our classes provide has been invaluable in helping us develop a strategy and evaluate our performance.”
Best, impressed with the caliber and ability of the students, described them as “aggressive negotiators and able entrepreneurs.”
Loesch’s partners are John Dawson, David Dollinger, Thad Doyka, Tom Garren, Eric Helstrom, Jim Howard, Greg Lev-rance, Julia Lord, Blair Lund, Chris McMahon, Frank Piatkowski, John Ramirez, E. J. Remson, Mark Rettig, John Tadich and Jeffrey Weinstein.
Real estate firms take note.
