Winning team with their faculty adviser Jeff Engelstad.
Six students in the Masters of Science in Real Estate and Construction Management program and one student in the Denver MBA program won first prize at the NAIOP Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge May 3. This is the 10th time Burns students have won the competition in the past 16 years.
“It was fantastic and speaks volumes about the quality of our program,” said Barbara Jackson, director of the Franklin L. Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management.
The students were required to evaluate development opportunities at the RK (RK Mechanical, Inc.) site located in the Stapleton neighborhood of northeast Denver. The project includes four separate parcels located at 3800 Xanthia Street in Denver—encompassing 14.97 acres—and is bordered by Xanthia Street to the west, 35th Avenue to the south, and Yosemite to the Central Park Station of RTD’s A-Line.
The Daniels team included MS REBE students Casey Fanganello, Adam Graham, Demetra Kapuranis, Timothy Flynn, Chase Siegel, Ross Hardin and Denver MBA student Ari Steinberg.
“We were tasked with presenting a feasible, creative, integrated development plan that promotes the best and most sustainable use of the site while embracing the overall master development plan of Stapleton and the surrounding community,” Steinberg said.
Left to right: Casey Fanganello, Adam Graham, Ari Steinberg, Demetra Kapuranis, Timothy Flynn, Chase Siegel and Ross Hardin.
“The NAIOP competition is an experience like no other,” Kapuranis said. “We had the opportunity to work with multiple developers, contractors and an architectural firm. My favorite part was working with OZ Architecture and taking part in the innovative design processes and creating a new redevelopment for RK Mechanical.”
The team created a redevelopment proposal that includes townhomes, garden style apartments, condominiums, and a senior living component with independent and assisted living and memory care.
After four months of preparation and competing in an internal competition to represent Daniels, the team presented May 3 before roughly 700 industry professionals.
“It was a feeling of happiness and joy,” Kapuranis said. “Our group worked so hard on this project with the mindset of winning the whole competition. I’m so proud of my team and all of their hard work and dedication to the project.”
“This is a best in class event here in Colorado,” Steinberg said. “The event provides students the opportunity to not only play developer but also to become an expert in a potentially feasible project. The access it offers Denver real estate professionals is second to none, and many of us have gotten job offers through this process.”