The Rutgers Center for Real Estate hosted a 10th anniversary party on Sept. 18 during a reception at The Rutgers Club in Piscataway. — Photos by Fred Stucker/Courtesy: Rutgers
By Joshua Burd
The Rutgers Center for Real Estate welcomed industry leaders alongside alumni and staff last month as the program marked its 10th anniversary at a reception in Piscataway.
The event, which took place at the school’s Livingston campus, celebrated the center’s growth and the opportunities it has provided to those seeking a career in real estate or exposure to the field as part of a business or finance curriculum. The program noted recently that nearly 330 alumni have obtained Rutgers’ undergraduate concentration in real estate, while the center has provided nearly $2.3 million in scholarships to 373 students since its launch.
SLIDESHOW: Rutgers Center for Real Estate's 10th anniversary
It has done so with the help of many well-known figures from New Jersey’s commercial real estate sector that have made up its executive committee and advisory board. Those development executives and service providers have also helped build its curriculum, mentor students and provide other means of guidance and financial support.
The center launched in earnest in 2015 following a donation two years earlier by Paul V. Profeta, the owner and president of Paul V. Profeta and Associates Inc. and the publisher of Real Estate NJ, who gifted $1.5 million to establish a chair in real estate. An anonymous donor matched those funds to create $3 million in seed money for the program and pave the way for the hiring of Morris Davis, its academic director and the Paul V. Profeta chair of Real Estate at Rutgers Business School, who joined in 2014 after leading the University of Wisconsin’s James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate.
