Clemson Master of Real Estate Development students win the prestigious Colvin Case Study Challenge

A team of students in Clemson University’s Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) program has claimed first place in the 2024 Colvin Case Study Challenge. The winning team of Zion Kaauwai, Logan Stern and Skye McCullough was coached by Associate Professor Stephen Buckman.

Hosted by the University of Maryland, the Colvin Case Study Challenge is “a national intercollegiate real estate case study competition for full or part-time students enrolled in a college or a university real estate program.” The competition requires teams of students to document an innovative real estate project within their metropolitan region” and is intended to “hone professional skills and reveal the knowledge base and understanding of markets, project valuation, finance, urban design and sustainability, entitlement processes and operational issues.”

The win is a breakthrough for Clemson, whose teams have made multiple second- and third-place finishes in recent years. Clemson edged out a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the victory.

“The win feels amazing. We have been to the finals many times but have not gotten over the top,” Buckman said. “This shows we can not only compete with the big boys but also best them.”

“I really think we put our hearts and souls into presenting this incredible story to the judges, and they commented that they could feel the dedication, the hours of hard work, and the passion we had for representing our case the best we could,” Kaauwai said.

Learning while winning

“The project we did was a master-planned mixed-use development in Charleston called the Morrison Yard,” Kaauwai explained. “It was developed by Charleston-based developer Origin Development Partners who have a portfolio of assets across all product types in the Charleston area.”

Kaauwai noted that the project was the first to make use of the incentive structure laid out by the Upper Peninsula Zoning and is designed to serve as the launch pad for future developments focused on amenitized, affordable and mixed-income housing to address the area’s housing shortage. He also stressed that one of the top things the team learned from the study was the importance of collaborating with stakeholders before beginning a development.

“Another thing we learned is that context to the areas in which developments occur really do mean everything,” he said, and he explained that understanding the history and heritage of Charleston was vital to the project’s success.

“With private interests prioritizing both the community’s goals and the municipality’s goals of redeveloping a neglected area, this project really drew us in from the beginning,” he said.