Training Future Practitioners in the New World of Real Estate

This fall marked the first applications for the GSD’s new Master in Real Estate (MRE) program, a 12-month degree for those who want to acquire core real estate development skills while learning how real estate can advance beneficial spatial, social, and environmental outcomes in cities and metropolitan areas worldwide. The program was made possible by a combined $13 million in gifts from GSD alumni and friends, including Sam Plimpton MBA ’77, MArch ’80, who serves as Senior Advisor to the Private Investment Group and is a member of the GSD’s Dean’s Leadership Council, and Calvin Tsao FAIA MArch ’79 of Tsao & McKown.

“It is exciting to anticipate the future leaders who will advance their careers in the MRE program,” Plimpton said. “Candidates will gain exposure to business analytics, planning and design processes, social and user needs identification, principles of sustainability, and the complexity of real estate decisions in evolving environments. Graduates, over time, will lead private and public enterprises, and I am confident will make the world a better place.”

The goal of the MRE program is to train future real estate practitioners in how to address complex and urgent ethical challenges facing the built environment. The effects of climate change, the need for equitable development, blurred boundaries between home and work, and global flows of capital are stacked on top of the pressure to make real estate projects successful. Investors and regulatory agencies are also applying environmental, social, and governance criteria and other public benefits as new metrics for performance.

The MRE degree aims to address those challenges through a cross-disciplinary pedagogy of required and elective courses, concluding with a two-month practicum based at a private or public real estate organization working on a socially and environmentally oriented project. Students will learn about finance, project and construction management, government regulation, urban economics, public-private partnerships, politics, technology, real estate law, ethics, entrepreneurship, negotiation, leadership, and other subjects essential to the practice of present and future real estate.

“As we exist in a world that grows ever more globalized and complex, the challenge to promote and sustain cohesive societies and harmonious developments obliges us to question conventionally accepted ideologies, norms, and systems,” Tsao said. “This new MRE program puts our students on that path toward understanding — and leading — this evolved approach to real estate.”

The MRE program is accepting applications for up to 25 spaces, with the first class enrolling in fall 2023.

For any questions on supporting the MRE program, please contact Peggy Burns.