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MASTERING URBAN PLANNING
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By
Linda Jarrett
Students wanting to make their mark in any type of urban planning
or real estate development have only to check out the curriculum
at Saint Louis University.
The College of Public Service, in cooperation with the John
Cook School of Business and the School of Law at Saint Louis
University, offers a Masters in Urban Planning and Real Estate
Development (MUPRED) for students who have chosen this path.
In these days of Transportation Development Districts (TDD),
Tax Increment Financing (TIF), and a myriad of tax credits including
historic, brownfield, new market and low income housing, this
degree prepares those wanting to enter the world of urban planning
or real estate development. It enables them to understand urban
development from both the public and private sectors, and develops
professional competencies in planning technology, real estate
finance and analysis, and communication across diverse audiences.
Started in 1997, MUPRED is a 45-credit hour program, designed
as a two-year, full-time program including the summer session.
A part-time option is available requiring a minimum participation
of six credit hours per semester. Participation in the program
on a part-time basis requires continuous enrollment to allow
completion in three-and-a-half years.
THE BEGINNING
The way to prepare these students was not always available.
James F. Gilsinan, former dean of the College of Public Service
and the E. Desmond Lee Professor of Cooperative Regional Education
at Saint Louis University, says that in the mid-90s, “the mayor’s
office was having a difficult time recruiting local talent in
the terms of planners and people who understood real estate
and real estate development.
“There was no degree program in Missouri at the professional
level that addressed those issues,” Gilsinan says. “But the
Urban Land Institute got involved, and their membership began
to approach local universities about offering a program on urban
planning and real estate development at the graduate level.”
Richard Ward, principal of Development Strategies, began working
with SLU to get such a program in action.
I always felt that St. Louis, as a region, suffered from the
absence of an urban planning program that had become part of
and influenced its culture,” Ward says. “We at the ULI felt
that this was an idea we should take together, and found a very
receptive audience at SLU.
“You have to have, at least, a planning graduate program in
town to get the thinking and perspective of a planning-driven
community,” Ward says. “People that had run the urban affairs
office in the past had been losing influence or waning interest
as they approached retirement, then you had the new public affairs
chair in Jim Gilsinan, and we clicked.”
Gilsinan says that the basic program started with the idea that
urban planning students would enter through the College of Public
Service, and then pick up a minor in real estate development.
“Then, people from the business school could enter from the
real estate side and minor in planning, so you would have this
cross fertilization.” The program has since evolved and students
now initiate their program of study through the College of Public
Service.
There is a three-credit hour internship requirement that can
be done between the first and second year,” says Sarah L. Coffin,
Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Public Policy Studies,
and SLU College of Public Service. “We do have students who
come into the program that have experience from the field and
they can waive the internship requirement.
“What we try to accomplish with the curriculum is to give students
a language so that they can help translate the public and private
sector vernacular,” she says.
“For example, when a developer comes before a planning commission
with a project, and they present that project to the planning
commission,” she says, “if some of the members of the commission
were trained through our program, they would have a better idea
of the deal that the developer was presenting.”
Coffin says that with a greater understanding of what the other
side was trying to accomplish, many conflicts might be avoided.
AFTER THE SHEEPSKIN
Following graduation, students are prepared in four different
areas: the public sector, where they can enter city government;
the private sector, where they can work with real estate development
companies; the non-profit sector, where they can work with community
development corporations or economic development organizations;
or individual entrepreneurship, where they can start their own
firms.
“One of the neat things that was an original goal of the program,
has been accomplished,” Gilsinan says. “And that is, there have
now been a sufficient number of graduates who work in these
various public and private sectors. We’ve had incidents where
a former student was working with a private sector concern that
had to get together with a public sector graduate.
“They worked out a deal without all the rigmarole that used
to happen when you didn’t have people who knew each other or
trained together,” Gilsinan says.
Graduates have a multitude of opportunities before them with
the MUPRED.
“They could be directors of economic development or planners,”
Coffin says. “I bring a lot of developers into the classroom
to present different aspects of their work. I have had panels
with a developer and a public sector official or employee, and
they’ll do mock debates over a particular deal.”
TESTIMONIAL
Matt Bauer graduated from the MUPRED program in May 2005 and
is now a real estate analyst for Development Strategies. He
says that having the degree is directly responsible for him
being in this position.
“I came from a marketing and advertising background, and I was
looking for a change,” he says. “I was interested in real estate
and its planning aspects, especially with all the things going
on downtown. I looked at other programs, but SLU was the only
one who offered a program that would cut across all areas.”
Bauer says taking the program gave him the opportunity to network
and build a portfolio by doing community work. “I would not
be in this position, had I not taken the urban planning program.”
THE CAPSTONE
Every program requires a “final exam,” and the Masters of Urban
Planning and Real Estate Development does not differ. However,
instead of a comprehensive examination, students prepare a capstone
project in their final semester of study.
This document demonstrates students’ knowledge and mastery of
the skills that they have acquired during the program.
“The capstone is their culminating experience that they produce
at the end of their course work,” Coffin says. “It’s essentially
what we can refer to as an exit project.”
Students take all the coursework they have done during the two-year
time they worked toward the MUPRED and identify a planning problem,
development issue or project and build their project around
it, synthesizing the literature, analyzing data, and developing
recommended solutions.
“They explore it, analyze it and essentially demonstrate that
they’ve mastered the profession competences and are able to
contribute to the profession,” Coffin says. “In this way, they
use the knowledge they’ve gathered, use the tools that they’ve
learned, and blend the public and private sector format.”
THE REAL ESTATE AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM
Preceding the MUPRED is the Real Estate and Community Development
program, which introduces students to roles in a real estate
transaction, including appraisers, brokers, city officials,
contractors, investors, developers, urban planners, lawyers
and lenders.
Matthew J. Grawitch, interim chair/assistant professor, Organizational
Studies Program at the School for Professional Studies at SLU
says, “A lot of the impetus for the program itself is that there
really isn’t a basic set of foundation courses for the student
to learn about it and develop their competencies in real estate
and community development.
“It’s not a bachelor’s degree in Real Estate and Community Development,”
he explains. “It’s offered as a minor or certificate program.”
“One of the main reasons for the undergraduate program was the
need to provide some opportunity for students who are interested
in urban planning to get some basic courses,” Gilsinan says,
“such as real estate finance, before they took advance courses
in real estate.
“This provides an opportunity not only for our adult students
if they were interested in a new career to explore real estate,
but also course work for our graduate students who needed some
of the basic courses before they could take the advance graduate
course.”
Now, more than ever, understanding real estate and land transactions
is fundamental in working on development and redevelopment,
whether for a neighborhood, infill housing or attracting a major
industry.
Students need to know there is more to “landing a deal” than
what’s taught in basic finance classes. Besides financial concepts,
they have to be familiar with land use laws and the language
of real estate transactions in both the public and private sector.
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Students
Involved to Solve
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By Linda Jarrett
This past January, four joint teams from Saint Louis University
and Washington University joined forces to compete in the
Urban Land Institute’s Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design
Competition. Their challenge: Los Angeles, California.
Sarah L. Coffin, Ph.D. assistant professor, Department of
Public Policy Studies at SLU, says that the goal of the
design competition is to give students the interdisciplinary
experience and to introduce them to the realities of working
in teams on design problems.
“The team members approach these problems from different
aspects, architecture, planning, law, and finance,” Coffin
says. “You can have the coolest design in the world, but
if it doesn’t make sense on the ground, it’s not going to
get done. The idea behind the competition is to give the
students the experience of trying to make the design work,
collaboratively.”
Cady Scott, SLU graduate student in the urban planning and
real estate program, led one of the four teams. “Our site
was in Central and East L.A. and we had to come up with
an urban design for the L.A. River, to make it less urban
and more attractive.”
ULI held last year’s competition in St. Louis, but home
teams were not allowed to participate.
All those teams focused on what was going on under the Grand
Avenue Viaduct, Scott says. “It’s the ‘no man’s land’ between
SLU’s main campus and the medical campus. “I got involved
with ULI in helping to organize the competition, so this
year I wanted to be a member of the team.”
The competition is part of ULI’s ongoing effort to raise
interest among young people in creating better communities,
improving development patterns, and increasing awareness
of the need for multidisciplinary solutions to development
and design challenges.
“Part of what interested me in ULI is that St. Louis has
a really strong Young Leaders Group program who are very
interested in the future development of St. Louis,” Scott
says. “They are really good at bringing in people who are
interested in urban planning, and ULI is trying to get the
young people who are in St. Louis. They hold education programs
that really speak to where we are in our careers so we can
take over where our predecessors leave off.” |
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St.
Louis Association of Realtors
& Colliers Turley Martin Tucker Scholarship
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By Linda
Jarrett
Never let it be said that the St. Louis business community
fails to step up to the plate when a need is seen.
Saint Louis University, with support from the St. Louis
Association of Realtors and commercial real estate firm
Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, this year established a $10,000
scholarship to cover the cost of its real estate and community
development minor and certificate program.
Tony Gallini, director of recruitment & marketing at SLU’s
School for Professional Studies, says, “Basically, students
just need to apply for the minor or certificate in the Real
Estate and Community Development program. We are accepting
applications for the scholarship through April 5.
“The application is free,” he says. “Once they apply, there’s
certain criteria that they have to meet.”
That criteria consist of the student having a 3.0 GPA and
not being either an employee of Saint Louis University or
having employer tuition reimbursement exceeding $2,500 a
year.
Dean Mueller, Colliers Turley Martin Tucker executive vice-president,
who has been on the Urban Planning and Development committee
for several years, was one of the consultants in establishing
the scholarship.
“We wanted to support this with donations because we recruit
from the University,” Mueller says. “Typically, we’ve given
to other schools around the area, but when we donated some
money for the SLU real estate program, they asked if we
would like to make this a scholarship, and we said ‘Sure.’”
He added that the firm currently has 15 students employed.
Dennis Norman, president of the St. Louis Association of
Realtors says that their commercial division of the association
is involved with this scholarship. “The whole board donates
$20,000 a year which is in addition to the $10,000 scholarship
from the commercial division.”
“With the growth in the commercial real estate industry,
this program prepares individuals to meet the industry’s
increasing need for qualified real estate professionals,”
Jennifer Kohler, director of SLU’s School for Professional
Studies, said in a statement.
To be eligible to receive the scholarship, students will
need to apply and be admitted into the program by April
5. |
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