MIT Center for Real Estate’s summer program shares potential career paths for underrepresented high school students
For high school students across the country, June marks the official end of the school year. After Independence Day fireworks light up the night sky, the days to follow usher in summer jobs, summer camp, or perhaps vacations with extended family. For the MIT Center for Real Estate (CRE), July represents the start of Real Estate Exchange (REEX) Program —a rigorous two-week program designed to introduce high school students of color to the high-earning potential in commercial real estate through a college-like experience.
REEX takes place at four universities — MIT, Harvard University, Howard University and New York University — with nearly 100 high school juniors from across the US participating. This year’s program took place July 22 through August 2.
Created by the Real Estate Council, a professional association of real estate executives, the program offers a commercial real estate curriculum along with field trips and lectures from local industry professionals. REEX participants are self-identified as African American, Latino, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and multi-racial. At MIT, Kelly Cameron, CRE’s career development officer, manages the REEX program which has been in place since 2019.
“Each year, I get to spend two incredible weeks with some bright students from all over the country,” says Cameron. “I’m always amazed by how quickly the student’s pick-up the material and make their presentations with unwavering confidence to industry professionals.”
“The REEX program has become one of our favorite events of the year and the program reminds us of how lucky we are to work in such an incredible field,”
Levi Reilly, Marcus Partners
REEX at MIT
REEX teaches students the core fundamentals related to real estate development: highest and best use of land; land use and zoning; a required process for determining what can be built; capital stack, an organized methodology detailing how funding is appropriated for a development project; financial proforma, a formulaic system capturing the profitability of a project; operations and stabilization, or how the building will function once complete; and, valuation and exit strategy, determining the estimated value of a project over time and when to sell it.
Classroom work is augmented by field trips to local real estate development sites. A vital element of the learning experience is the opportunity to work on an actual commercial real estate development project. Cameron develops this part of the program in conjunction with a local company. Levi Reilly, with the local real estate investment company Marcus Partners, provided a site for the students to develop their capstone project this year. The site, known as The Foundry, is a 251,000 square foot life sciences development project in the seaport district of South Boston.
“The REEX Program provides us with an opportunity to connect with future leaders of the real estate industry,” said Reilly. “The students are inquisitive and passionate – and their energy is contagious. This year we were happy to offer our life science project in the Seaport, Foundry at Drydock, as the focal piece of the REEX capstone project. We presented an overview of the project in the classroom and the student were then able to tour the nearly completed buildings. We love this process as it reinforces the notion that ideas can be transformed into real projects that add to the community.”
After visiting the project site and working in teams, students created capstone project presentations based on the zoning characteristics of the site location. The capstone presentations, a signature moment of the program, is a chance for each member of a team to showcase their knowledge and collective creativity in proposing a building project. The teams presented their proposed project ideas before a group of local real estate developers for final analysis and critique.
Like previous years the capstone presentations, hosted by MSRED alumna Marcella Barriere (’13), were held at Google’s corporate office in Kendall Square.
“Each year, I’m amazed by the students’ command of complex commercial real estate tools and principles. Their creativity and rigor, along with their ability to conquer the fear of public speaking, is truly inspiring,” said Barriere.
“The REEX program has become one of our favorite events of the year and the program reminds us of how lucky we are to work in such an incredible field,” said Reilly.
An all-star team of support
To reinforce the core fundamentals and foster learning, industry professionals were invited to lead virtual and in-person presentations. This year, local guest presenters and classroom facilitators for REEX at MIT included;
- Nagib Charles, Principal, The Charles Group
- Saeed Coates, President, GPG Companies, Inc.
- Jim Cowdrick, Senior Project Manager, Construction, Marcus Partners
- Michael Fergus, Project Manager, CBRE
- Tom Gearty, Director of Communications, MIT Nano
- Roshni Gohil, Senior Analyst, Portfolio Reporting Solutions, MITIMCo
- Darrin Gold, Senior Vice President of Wealth Management, The Gold Group [of UBS]
- Ken Goldsmith, Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration, MIT
- Patrick Kimble, President and Founder, Caste Capital, LLC
- Michelle Landers, Executive Director, ULI/Boston/New England
- David Linhart, Real Estate Attorney, Goulston Storrs
- Taidgh McClory, Founder, TH McClory, LLC
- Michael Owu, Vice President, MITIMCo
- Levi Reilly, Principal, Head of Development, Marcus Partners
- Ian Schrager, Development Manager, Marcus Partners
- Tamara Small, CEO, NAIOP-MA
- Patrick Sousa, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Capital, Marcus Partners
- Bea Thevenot, Director, NorthBridge Partners
Alumni engagement
Recognizing members of the MSRED alumni community who also contributed to REEX 2024 at MIT;
- Marcella Barriere (’13), Real Estate Project Executive, Google
- Phil Cohen (’18), Principal, Boston Communities
- Patrick Downey (’20), Vice President, Columbia Group Realty Advisors, Inc.
- Zoya Puri (’17), Senior Vice President, Beacon Capital Partners
- Patrick Rowe (’07), Senior Vice President, MITIMCo
- Amanda Strong (’02), Director, Asset Management, MITIMCo
- Steve Weikal (’08), Industry Chair, MIT Real Estate Transformation Lab
Additional thanks to members of the Ventas team for their support and tour of the Atria Senior Living facility in North Andover. Ventas is a real estate investment trust specializing in the ownership and management of research, medicine and healthcare facilities in the US, Canada and the UK.
