Celebrating a Decade of Student Success
In April 2015, the McDonough School of Business officially launched the Steers Center for Global Real Estate, thanks to the generosity and vision of Robert (B’75, P’06, P’08, P’10) and Lauren (P’06, P’08, P’10) Steers.
Our History
With gratitude to our students and alumni, we begin the 10th-anniversary celebration of the naming of the Steers Center, culminating with our Real Estate Luminaries event on April 10, 2025, featuring Jonathan Gray of Blackstone. Our core value always has been the utmost care and concern for our students, and that has been the guiding light for all that the prior 10 years has produced. We are proud of the past and what has been accomplished, and excited for the next steps in developing the Steers Center for Global Real Estate into a premier destination to shape the future of the industry
Through the Years
April 2010
Georgetown McDonough launches the Real Estate Finance Initiative to train the next generation of industry leaders and hosts the inaugural Real Estate Summit, which would later be called the Real Estate Luminaries.
July 2012
Matthew Cypher joins Georgetown McDonough as a professor of the practice in real estate finance and director of the school’s Real Estate Finance Initiative.
April 2015
Georgetown McDonough’s Real Estate Finance Initiative becomes the Steers Center for Global Real Estate thanks to the generosity of Robert Steers (B’75, P’06, P’08, P’10) and his wife, Lauren Steers (P’06, P’08, P’10).
April 2015
MBA real estate students embark on the inaugural international real estate trek with the first destination of Bogota, Colombia.
November 2015
The Georgetown University Real Estate Alliance (GUREA) launched with its inaugural event in New York City featuring Joseph Sitt (B’18) of Thor Equities.
August 2016
The undergraduate-led Georgetown University Public Real Estate Fund (GUPREF) officially launches with help from $100,000 seed funding from the Steers Center. Photo courtesy of GUPREF.
October 2019
The A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation contributed a $6 million gift to establish the A. James Clark Endowed Chair in Global Real Estate at the Steers Center, which was awarded to Francesco D’Acunto in 2022.
November 2019
The Steers Center hosted Project Skyhook as its seminal strategic planning conference. The outcomes from this experience drove the center’s direction and is responsible for the current state of real estate at Georgetown McDonough.
September 2020
The Steers Center launched the Steers Private Fund, a student-led fund for direct real estate investments, with a $1 million investment from Sonny Kalsi (B’90).
December 2022
Georgetown McDonough and the Steers Center introduced the first-of-its-kind M.S. in Global Real Assets program to prepare students to lead change at the intersection of real estate, infrastructure, sustainability, and global capital flows.
June 2024
Tim Reardon joins as the executive director of the Steers Center and is charged with leading the day-to-day activities of the center in partnership with Matthew L. Cypher.
Our Progress
The Founding of the Real Estate Finance Initiative
The origins of the Steers Center for Global Real Estate date back to the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the McDonough School of Business’s concern with helping students find employment upon graduation. Robert Billingsley (F’67, P’99, P’03), Tim McBride (L’75, L’80, P’04), and Robert Steers suggested to then-Dean Christopher Puto that real estate would be a viable option.
From early 2002 through most of the remainder of the decade, McBride led the effort to offer real estate coursework in the McDonough School of Business and host events that would prove to draw interest in McDonough from both the students and the real estate industry.
In April 2009, Dean George Daly announced “There is a place for real estate at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business,” which led to the hiring of Professor Jeff Reid to initially lead the new real estate initiative while also being responsible for the founding and leadership of the Entrepreneurship Initiative at McDonough, which he still oversees today.
In April 2010, Georgetown McDonough officially launched the Real Estate Finance Initiative to train the next generation of real estate industry leaders. The initiative hoped to achieve this by building a community of interest through events in both Washington and New York; expanding professional opportunities for students and alumni; and enhancing curriculum and experiential learning for students through courses, consulting projects, case competitions, site visits, industry conferences, mentor programs, and student club activities.
The initiative’s first programming was the inaugural Georgetown Real Estate Summit in September 2010, which was the precursor of the modern-day Real Estate Luminaries program. The event featured Sam Zell, chairman of Equity Group Investments as its keynote speaker along with Michael Fascitelli (Vornado Realty), Thomas Flexner (Citigroup), Christopher Nassetta (Hilton Worldwide), and R. Scot Sellers (Archstone). The highly successful event showcased the initiative’s ability to convene elite industry professionals on Georgetown University’s campus.
Building to a Center
In July 2012, Matthew Cypher joined Georgetown McDonough as a professor of the practice in real estate finance and was appointed director of the Real Estate Finance Initiative. Cypher joined Georgetown from Invesco Real Estate.
Cypher stated his goal as director of the Initiative was to “employ a highly applied approach to learning that will focus on the interaction between bottom-up asset level questions and top-down market considerations.” Cypher added that his primary objective was “to produce uncommonly skilled graduates that will make an immediate impact at top real estate companies around the globe.”
In 2012, Mary and Bill Poland (P’13) established the Poland Family Endowed Fund to create the Poland Family Real Estate Fellows Program, which creates a select community of highly talented, emerging business leaders dedicated to the field of commercial real estate. Fellows are selected annually from full-time, second year MBA students who have demonstrated academic ability, leadership, and significant interest in a real estate profession through active participation in real estate activities throughout their academic program.
In the Spring of 2013, the McBride Family generously made a significant contribution to the Real Estate Finance Initiative. This gift provided funding for the McBride Lecture Series, which officially began in September of 2014, and brought standout real estate professionals to McDonough to share their experiences and insights with real estate students. The inaugural McBride Speaker was Benjamin Jacobs, co-founder of The JBG Companies. The McBride Family was clear that this event was to focus entirely on Georgetown University students, which has remained the case through today.
The Real Estate Fellows program launched in Spring 2013 in partnership with Invesco Real Estate, providing MBA students the opportunity to work with the firm and produce the initial underwriting models for deals being considered. The program morphed over the years and is now named the Real Estate Clinic and is offered as two credit-bearing classes featuring multifamily and commercial investment analysis. The courses have become a cornerstone of the Steers academic offering because of the opportunity for students to learn the business using live deals.
The McDonough Real Estate Case Competition (M-RECC) ran for the first time in Fall 2013 as an opportunity for undergraduate and MBA students focused in real estate to participate as one community on a real estate case judged by alumni. The intention was to introduce students to the real estate case competition format so they would be successful in the national competitions in which the school competed.
Establishing the Center
In April 2015, Georgetown McDonough’s Real Estate Finance Initiative became the Steers Center for Global Real Estate thanks to the generosity of Robert Steers (B’75, P’06, P’08, P’10) and his wife, Lauren (P’06, P’08, P’10).
In his announcement of the center’s launch, Georgetown’s then-President DeGioia noted that “the hallmarks of the center include: individualized mentoring and career planning with industry leaders; a highly applied curriculum that takes students out of the classroom and into Washington’s gateway real estate community; and a global approach that allows students to consult for and work with companies around the world.”
As part of their $10-million gift to the school, the Steers family also established the Robert and Lauren Steers Chair in Real Estate, initially held by Host Hotels & Resorts CEO and President W. Edward Walter (L’80). The Steers family’s gift allowed the center to meaningfully expand co-curricular programming for the students and attract very high-quality industry talent, such as Walter, to the center and its students.
Growing the Center
In April 2015, MBA real estate students embarked on the inaugural international real estate trek with the first destination of Bogata, Colombia. Thereafter, the trek was held in London, England.
The inaugural semester of the undergraduate First Year Seminar, titled The Real Estate Game, occurred in Fall 2015 and was taught by Cypher and Thomas B. Cooke (L’74, L’76, L’84). The course remains a critical conduit for introducing the youngest Hoyas to the discipline of commercial real estate and has produced some of the best real estate talent from Georgetown University.
The Georgetown University Wall Street Alliance (GUREA) launched in November 2015 in New York City with its inaugural event featuring Joseph Sitt (B’18) of Thor Equities. The alliance was led by Lawrence Palumbo (B’00) who introduced the Real Estate Mentorship program, a key aspect of the alliance’s role in the lives of current Georgetown students.
In August 2016, the undergraduate-led Georgetown University Public Real Estate Fund (GUPREF) officially launched with help from $100,000 seed funding from the Steers Center.
In October of 2019, the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation contributed a $6 million gift to establish the A. James Clark Endowed Chair in Global Real Estate at the Steers Center. This donation enabled the Steers Center to expand its faculty with the hiring of Francesco D’Acunto, an associate professor of finance who has held the chair since August 2022.
Pivotal to the center’s strategic growth was Project Skyhook, a seminal strategic planning conference for the Steers Center held over two days in November 2019. A total of 64 stakeholders from various aspects of the Steers Center convened at the Wharf in Washington, D.C., to plan the future of the center. The outcomes from this experience drove the center’s direction and is responsible for the current state of real estate at Georgetown McDonough.
In September 2020, the Steers Center launched the Steers Private Fund, a student-led fund for direct real estate investments, with a $1 million investment from Sonny Kalsi (B’90).
In September 2020, the Steers Center announced an internship program for students impacted by COVID-19 that later became known as Steers Advisory Services (SAS).
In March 2022, Georgetown McDonough launched the MBA Certificate in Global Real Estate to equip students with the experiences and skills necessary to compete in the commercial real estate market and make an impact in the field.
In December 2022, Georgetown McDonough and the Steers Center introduced the first-of-its-kind M.S. in Global Real Assets program to prepare students to lead change at the intersection of real estate, infrastructure, sustainability, and global capital flows.
Looking to the Future
The future of our Steers Center for Global Real Estate has never been brighter, as we are fortunate to have the necessary resources to continue to expand and elevate Georgetown McDonough to the most elite real estate centers in the world. The real estate industry has radically changed since the onset of Covid-19 in March 2020 and the rise of interest rates beginning in March of 2022. The industry is moving in the direction of new property types, alternative energy sources, and inclusion of infrastructure into a broader definition of our industry which is real assets. We believe we are at the beginning of the new real assets economy that incorporates all that is new and innovative into the way society interfaces with space. The Steers Center will be at the forefront of this movement and educating our students to become the next generation of leaders for the industry.
Reflections on a Decade of Growth
We are very excited about helping to lead our industry into the new real assets economy, which will define the future of the real estate and infrastructure investing marketplace.Robert Steers (B’75, P’06, P’08, P’10)
The Steers Center’s focus on our students is a defining characteristic of our programming, which is also very important to me as an alumna of Georgetown University.Sonny Kalsi (B'90)
The Steers Center offered a tremendous learning experience, but also the opportunity to develop a network of Hoyas in real estate that has only grown after I have graduated through my involvement with the Georgetown Real Estate Alliance.Lena Duffield (B’17)
Here's to 10 More Years!
The Steers Center’s mission is to provide the best hands-on real estate education experience in the world, and that is made possible by the support of people like you.