GMU offers MS in real estate development

Beginning this September, George Mason University will offer a new 36-credit hour Master of Science in Real Estate Development.

The program, which recently received approval from Virginia’s State Council of Higher Education, is a cross-disciplinary program drawing support and resources from three GMU schools — the Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering, the School of Management and the School of Public Policy.

The program is being unveiled as the economic crisis has dried up demand for real estate development across the country. Still, with its size and proximity to federal government, the Washington region has risen to the top of most investors’ rankings of the world’s real estate market.

The new master’s program is the culmination of a year-long effort to increase education in today’s complex real estate industry. To involve the professional real estate development community, the school worked closely with local real estate leaders and with NAIOP Northern Virginia, a commercial real estate development association, to plan the new program, said Mark Hassinger, chairman of GMU’s Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship’s advisory board and president of WestDulles Properties Inc.

Students will choose one of three tracks: development, finance or sustainability and the environment. The program will offer courses in land use and zoning, sustainable development, real estate finance, entrepreneurship and leadership, management of the development process, marketing and asset management and development company management.

“This program is the right educational product, being delivered in the right location, housed in the right creative grouping of schools at Mason and being developed at the right time given the current challenges of an ever-changing real estate environment,” Hassinger said.

In July, the university hired Arizona State University’s Anthony B. Sanders to help lead the new program. Sanders, who will hold the title of distinguished professor of real estate finance, will co-direct the Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship.

Sanders’ research and teaching focuses on investments with particular emphasis on real estate finance and investment. He previously taught at the University of Chicago, the University of Texas at Austin and The Ohio State University. Before that, Sanders led Deutsche Bank’s asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities research division in New York City.

Despite today’s challenging economic times, Sanders welcomes the opportunity to work in a real estate program that draws on the expertise of the Washington market’s local professionals. The center plans to work with local adjunct faculty and guest lecturers on case studies from the region, and to sponsor applied research projects and community outreach programs.

The center and the new academic program will also provide continuing education and leadership seminars for local real estate professionals.

“There are so many problems facing the real estate industry in the U.S., but those same problems create enormous opportunities for real estate entrepreneurs,” Sanders said.

Applications are being accepted now at http://realestate.gmu.edu/register.html.