This course places MRE students in the role of developer and asks them to produce a development proposal for a site in the United States or elsewhere that satisfies realistic financial, design, market, legal, civil society, political, social, and environmental criteria. The course is paired with several studios, taught by non-real estate faculty and composed of urban design, architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture students, affording an opportunity for real estate students to collaborate iteratively where appropriate with students who are fundamentally concerned with the translation of development ideas into physical form.

MRE students and, where appropriate, studio students will engage in the following:
1. Analyzing existing site conditions and the broader geographic context
2. Identifying the various stakeholders and understanding their motivations and needs
3. Understanding legal, political, and environmental opportunities and constraints
4. Evaluating relevant market, macroeconomic, and financing conditions
5. Conducting real estate financial analyses appropriate to each phase of work
6. Researching and analyzing precedents
7. Shaping design approaches at the master-plan level and in more detail
8. Creating a public benefits package and approvals strategy
9. Testing use programs for feasibility against many criteria
10. Comparing development alternatives

MRE students will subsequently refine their thinking to produce a development proposal that would convince the site owner, investors, lenders and underwriters, regulators, politicians, neighbors, and civic organizations among others that the proposed project is viable and desirable. The development proposal will also describe how the project will be implemented, including deal structures, regulatory approval strategies, political and civic organization engagements, financing vehicles, and phasing approaches.

The course combines instructor lectures on necessary skills with student-led initiatives for assembly of information, analysis, and production of a development proposal. Each site has one Development Project instructor. MRE students will also engage where appropriate with the relevant studio instructor and design and planning students in those studios. Small teams of real estate and studio students will be formed at the beginning of the semester to work together on the sites and related work products. To facilitate opportunities for collaborative interactions, The Development Project’s four-hour meeting on Tuesdays 2:00 to 6:00pm overlaps schedule-wise with the studio. Note that option studio students, who meet twice weekly for four hours each session, have as their central mission the exploration and realization of design and planning outcomes rather than full-blown outcomes encompassed in a development proposal prepared by the MRE students. The option studios will each have their own syllabi, schedule, and work product deliverables.

This course is required for and limited to students in the GSD Master in Real Estate Program. 

Real Estate students will travel with GSD Option Studios to visit international and domestic sites and meet with project stakeholders. Students traveling to international sites will be term-billed $300 and those participating in the domestic site will be term-billed $150. All students are responsible for meals and incidentals. See the GSD Travel Safety and Guidelines website for additional information.