Well, after travelling from Portland, OR, to Green River, WY, to Bigfork, MT, to Lethbridge, AB, Canada, to Denver, CO, to Coralville, IA we (my wife, son and I) are finally in Ithaca, NY. It was quite the trek, especially with a 16 month old toddler, but we played enough Elmo on the DVD player to make it enjoyable for him–though I am sure you know how I felt about Elmo singing for hours on end. Coming into Ithaca, I had no idea what to expect. Due to lack of time I couldn’t make it out for a campus tour prior to coming so I was coming here on complete faith, and it has more than exceeding my expectations-although the shopping is underwhelming according to my wife (which is probably a good thing considering I’m going to graduate school). The campus is beautifully set on a hill overlooking Ithaca and Cayuga Lake and the mid 1800′s architecture is stunning. It is definitely different than any campus I have seen out west, although the look and feel of Ithaca is surprisingly similar to Portland.
The first week in the Program is referred to as Orientation and gave the students an excellent opportunity to get to know all 25 first year students. We have quite an amazing group, one that is highlighted with a strong international presence, there are 3 Indians, 2 Chinese, 1 Thai, 1 Mexican, 1 Japanese, 2 Canadians(how exotic…I’m one of them), 1 Korean, and 14 American students. Everyone brings a different strength to the group from their differing backgrounds, there is an architect, a civil engineer, a sustainable energy consultant, a community farming expert, an appraiser and students with backgrounds in finance, planning and development. It’s quite a diverse group which means that the students will have a host of differing opinions, thoughts, and ideas about the cases that are worked on. I think it’s going to be quite interesting and I am sure that this will be the learning opportunity that I was looking forward to.
Orientation started with a weekend class on Microsoft Excel where REFM (Real Estate Financial Modeling) a consultancy out of Washington, DC, came and provided the incoming students with a weekend tutorial on how to model in Excel. On Monday, Robert Abrams, founding Director of the Cornell Program in Real Estate, took the students for a history tour of the campus outlining the interesting founding of the University in 1865 and showed the students the buildings housing PRE classes across the campus. Following the history Rosemary Oliver, the wife of Pike Oliver, Program Lecturer, and a registered dietitian, provided lunch and counseled the class about how to maximize brain power by eating right. Following Rosemary, the class was led by Pike Oliver on a hike in Ithaca where many of the students got their first experience trekking through the woods and near the gorges of Ithaca.
Tuesday, the Program chartered “The Haendal” a 45′ steel research vessel from Tiohero Tours and was taken on a guided sightseeing tour of Cayuga Lake. The class took the time to hear history on the Finger Lakes region, the health of the water in Cayuga lake, waterfront property on the lake, and got another opportunity to learn more about each others experience and personal goals for their time at Cornell. On Wednesday, the Program had its first formal Orientation event at the Statler Hotel, where the program was introduced to the students in detail. Thursday, Kim Schwartz taught the students the importance of the Cornell Real Estate Council, introduced them to Career Services, and provided an etiquette lunch that the Canadian students needed desperately!
Friday, the class took a bus tour of real estate projects in Ithaca. The first stop was at the Ithaca Gun site, where Dr. David Funk, Program Director, discussed environmental remediation and the costs that can pile up that can kill projects unless they receive federal, state or local funding. The next stop was Ithaca College where the class was directed through the building of the new Athletic complex at the college by the Integrated Properties team that are acting as the owners representative on the project. The size of the project and the complexity involved provided the students with an example of a large institutional project. Following Ithaca College, Bob Abrams led the class through a tour of Wegman’s Grocery Store. Wegman’s is practically worshipped here in Ithaca, and with the influx of students this past week has made it a maze to get through, however, it definitely tops the list of grocers that I’ve seen. The Wegman concept is to have something for everyone, so instead of catering only to the rich and organically inclined (Whole Foods) or focusing more on price than quality (Winco, Aldi), it provides products for both groups and those stuck in the middle. You will find the most gourmet spaghetti sauce from NYC, but you will find in the same section Ragu and Prego. Wegman’s understands retail, and I guess part of that is that they understand people, and it shows as their store is always packed full of them. Following Wegman’s we boarded the bus and headed to a walking tour of downtown Ithaca. For a town of only 30,000, it has a fairly substantial downtown, one that is highlighted by Collegetown and The Commons. The Commons is a pedestrian mall that runs for two blocks through downtown Ithaca and has a bunch of local shops and restaurants, and is considered the #1 tourist destination in Tompkins County (other than Cornell).
Collegetown borders The Commons and the entrance to the Cornell Campus and is neat area with 5 floor brick buildings with ground floor retail that houses bars, restaurants, burrito and pizza joints, a barber shop and the other college necessities.
Following our tour of downtown Ithaca’s housing and retail we stopped by Seneca Place on the Commons, a relatively new project in Downtown Ithaca that houses a Hilton Garden Inn and 100,000 sf of office space. There we were met by Frank Apeseche, CEO of the Berkshire Group and Thomas LiVigne, Director of Cornell Real Estate, who both took time to address us during lunch. After lunch we hit the road again, this time heading to Ithaca Mall, where Duane Stiller, President of Woolbright Development, addressed us his path in real estate and what we could learn from his experience in real estate. Mr. Stiller also discussed his current focus with his group and where he sees retail going in the short term. For our last stop we met with an Ithaca homebuilder who was building out a neighborhood just east of the Ithaca Airport, his product had high end finishes and provided exterior maintenance so it seemed ideal for the Empty Nester profile. The tour of Ithaca definitely helped us first year students get a better feel of Ithaca, and opened my eyes to the possibilities real estate offers even in relatively smaller markets like Ithaca.
