Mark Riedy, Ph.D.

On Tuesday, June 9, the Burnham-Moores Center is holding its second annual Policy Advisory Board (PAB) meeting, which consists of four committees of industry executives who meet three times yearly—twice as stand-alone committees and once on a combined basis. Approximately 100 industry executives will gather to discuss industry conditions, prospects and opportunities, all of which provide timely and relevant information and insights to the Center's faculty and staff and candid exchanges of opinions for the industry executives to take back to their businesses.

The agenda also elicits PAB members' suggestions and advice on a host of issues critical to the continued success of USD's real estate program. For example, members will be asked to debate the ways in which we integrate topics of ethics and social responsibility into our curriculum. We also will take a first look at opportunities for executive education, education programs for more senior real estate executives, at this meeting.

The June 9 meeting is the first for our newly formed Young Entrepreneurs Council (YEC), a group of high performers whose total number will be limited to 10 at any one time. Members all are under the age of 35, and due to the council's size limitation, membership is by invitation only. Young Entrepreneurs Council members are committed to providing fresh ideas, high energy and great enthusiasm to the Burnham-Moores Center, specifically from the perspective of their generation.

Nine of the 10 YEC members have been selected, with the 10th candidate already having been identified. The nine members are led by Ann Mott, Cruzan/Monroe who will serve as chair for the first year and be the council's liaison with the PAB Executive Committee; Emma Ricci, Ernst & Young, LP, is vice chair. A third member is Dan Broderick, Eastdil Secured, who will be the YEC's liaison with the Policy Advisory Board's Commercial Real Estate Committee. Similarly, Fernando Landa, Hecht Solberg Robinson Goldberg & Bagley, is the liaison with our Residential Real Estate Committee. The other five members of the Young Entrepreneurs Council are: Matt Carlson, Cushman & Wakefield; Brian Gates, H.G. Fenton; Alvin Mansour, Marcus & Millichap; Kelly Souza, Wells Fargo; and, Justin Suiter, Pasco Laret Suiter & Associates.

With the launch of the Young Entrepreneurs Council, we simultaneously closed our Curriculum and Research Committee. Always a small committee, when its chair, Louis Masotti, PhD, moved out of the area and another member retired from the business, we decided to incorporate the responsibilities of the Curriculum and Research Committee into those of our three long-standing committees—Executive, Commercial Real Estate and Residential Real Estate.

We rely heavily upon all of our committees for their wisdom, active participation in our classroom, conferences and continuing education and financial support. We especially thank the members of the Curriculum and Research Committee for their substantive contributions to our curriculum. And we look forward to the new initiatives that the Young Entrepreneurs Council will be encouraging us to pursue, with their active involvement and support.

More than 75 people attended the May 28 presentation, "Utilizing Today's Real Estate Market to Increase Your Wealth," which was co-presented by the Burnham-Moores Center, the University's Family Business Forum, Grant, Hinkle & Jacobs and Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch.

The event was designed to provide families new options for wealth preservation by leveraging the currently depressed real estate markets. Presenters included: Mark Riedy, Ph.D., the Center's executive director, Cory Grant, co-founder of Grant, Hinkle & Jacobs, and Jeffrey Stoke, partner of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch.

The three-hour event also featured an interactive discussion with panelists: Kim Fletcher, president and CEO of Investors Leasing Corp., Jason Kendall, president of Kendall Farms and Kendall Investment Properties and Scott Kaohu, CFO of ITEC Properties LP.

	Brad Flewellen

Master of Science in Real Estate student Brad Flewellen has been named the spring 2009 recipient of the Daniel B. Woodruff Memorial Scholarship. The Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate established the award in 2000 in permanent tribute to USD graduate Daniel Woodruff '98 (BA), to honor the most outstanding student pursuing real estate as a career profession. Woodruff died of cancer at the age of 27, less than two years after graduating from USD.

Flewellen is the 16th student to receive the endowed scholarship, which is the only scholarship that students cannot apply for. The scholarship, which carries with it a $2,000 award, is granted to a student who best epitomizes Woodruff's positive qualities of "academic excellence, warmth, determination, intellectual curiosity, and unabashed love for humankind."

"Brad was the unanimous choice for the Woodruff Scholarship for Spring 2009 because of his positive leadership qualities, his sense of purpose and direction, his commitment to preparation, and his intense intellectual curiosity, all permeated by a strong sense of ethics and fair play," said Mark Riedy, Ph.D., the Center's executive director.

Flewellen is originally from San Francisco and transferred to USD's MSRE program from John Hopkins University's real estate program in 2008. He earned his bachelor's in business administration in 2000 from Morehouse College in Atlanta, graduating magna cum laude. He has over eight years experience in banking and commercial real estate finance including commercial real estate investment, institutional banking and conduit lending, mortgage lending, loan structuring, credit analysis, underwriting and due diligence.

Flewellen began his career with National Cooperative Bank (NCB), FSB as an underwriter for the institution's National Commercial Real Estate team. After 4˝ years at NCB, FSB, he left to assume an analyst position at CBRE|Melody with the company's Capital Markets team. In April of 2006, Flewellen began working as an acquisitions investment associate for Madison Marquette, a national retail owner, manager and developer.

Flewellen recently finished the internship he held at Pacifica Companies, where he was an acquisitions analyst for most of the academic year, to focus on his studies before graduating this July. His post-graduation plans tentatively include returning to San Francisco and working for the Federal Disposition Insurance Corporation, where he recently received an offer as a loan review specialist.

Flewellen said he was completely taken by surprise when he learned of the prestigious honor. "I was speechless," he says. "It's just an abundance of honors. First of all, the fact that you couldn't even apply for it and had to be nominated by the faculty was an honor. Second, for it to be in Dan Woodruff's name—someone who Dr. Riedy had so much respect for. And then to be part of such an elite group of previous recipients, it was just like icing on the cake."

Norm Miller, Ph.D.

Norm Miller, the Center's professor and director of academic programs, chaired a conference on sustainable real estate at the Homer Hoyt Institute in North Palm Beach, Fla., May 14-17. Miller is on the board of the Homer Hoyt Institute, which is an independent, non-profit research and educational foundation established in 1968 to improve the quality of public and private real estate decisions. The conference included participants from Bulgaria to Singapore as well as many of the leaders in sustainable real estate from the USGBC to RNC, a leading architectural firm that helps design buildings in the United Arab Emirates. Also in attendance were the sustainability directors for Hines and CBRE and investment advisers such as RREEF and ING Clarion. The following is an executive summary that Miller prepared after the conference. For a complete conference agenda, go here.

From Norm Miller, Ph.D.

Green is not a niche, but a future way of doing business for many and a current way of doing business for sustainability leaders. There is a payoff from better management including facilities and operations within the firm. Much of our wasteful behaviors are cultural and habit-based, but as society forces us to internalize the costs of pollution, carbon output or waste, we will be forced into decisions on how to do less harm. California's Title 24 code is one example of the new regulations that will affect coastal states that are now legislating green whether we like it or not.

It is clear that some of our behaviors are institutionalized and need reform, including building codes. For example, codes require underground garage fans capable of operating 24/7, but with motion sensors and carbon monoxide sensors, we may be able to cut back significantly on fans running for no purpose. This realization enabled Adobe in its corporate headquarters to generate almost $100,000 a year in energy savings with a modest investment of less than $1,000. Certainly, there are fans running needlessly all over the United States. Such examples also serve to provide proof that doing good for the environment can be profitable.

The triple bottom line concern is real for most companies and not just rhetoric. This was the view of Dave Pogue, corporate director of sustainability for CBRE. What is clear is that many tenants are experiencing for the first time occupancy in better buildings with more natural light, cleaner air and better ventilation. They are being asked to compare the new space to their old space. A recent survey of over 500 tenants in 150 green buildings conducted by CBRE and the Burnham-Moores Center will provide the fodder for comparing operating expenses to peer properties and productivity measures including sick days among other measurements. Results of this study will be available by late summer or early fall.

There are many exciting experiments going on all over the world from Masdar, a zero carbon futuristic city in the United Arab Emirates, to smarter electrical grids and to new and better bio-fuels. Have you ever heard of a Gribble? Probably not, but they are small marine creatures that can turn old wood or any cellulose into fuel. There will certainly be an evolution based on the growth of green industry, and real estate owners, managers, investors and developers would be wise to stay in tune with both technology and better business practices. The obsolescence of existing real estate has been accelerated by the recession, and early adopters of green solutions are now feeling good about their decisions.

Staff from the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate attended RECON, ICSC's global retail real estate convention, May 17-20 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The University of San Diego's booth was located on University Row, amid other universities across the country that offer real estate courses. An estimated 29,000 people attended this year's convention.

Mark Riedy was interviewed May 26 by Roger Showley of the San Diego Union-Tribune regarding a recent release of the Case-Shiller numbers.

Alan Gin was interviewed for a May 22 San Diego Union-Tribune article on the erratic trends in notices of default.

The first-place honors received by a team of MSRE students participating in the Argus University Software Challenge was covered in the Sunday Home section of the San Diego Union-Tribune, as well as the San Diego Business Journal and The Daily Transcript.

Norm Miller was interviewed for an upcoming USA Today article on home closing costs.

The "Does Green Pay Off?" study co-authored by Norm Miller was mentioned in the May 11 edition of GreenBuilding.

Mark Riedy was quoted in a May 16 San Diego Union-Tribune article on repurchase claims.

A feature article written by Lou Galuppo appeared in the May 20 real estate special section of the North County Times.