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Russo Development CEO Ed Russo (far right) speaks to East Brunswick High School students on May 21 at the fifififififirm’s Vermella Woodbridge property as part of a tour hosted by Urban Land Institute Northern New Jersey’s UrbanPlan program.
The UrbanPlan program’s first- ever field trip offered something for everyone: Students at East Brunswick High School got an up- close look at real estate development, while the CEO of sponsor Russo Development got to promote his industry to a new generation.
“I would try to encourage you, at this stage in your lives, to think about real estate as an interesting career,” Ed Russo told the 10th- through 12th- graders before their tour of Vermella Woodbridge, a newly completed luxury apartment complex. That’s especially true if “you enjoy seeing things come out of the ground, and you enjoy looking back and saying, ‘Hey, what did I create?’” he added
— an experience not often found in other industries.
The May 21 field trip was the latest
addition to UrbanPlan, an initiative by the Urban Land Institute that allows students to participate in hands-
on, simulated real estate planning while working side by side with top industry professionals. Launched locally in 2019 at East Brunswick High School, the program tasks them with creating a redevelopment plan for a dilapidated neighborhood in a fictional community, with each team member serving as finance director, marketing director, city liaison, neighborhood liaison or site planner.
Nearly 200 students in East Brunswick have participated to
date under the guidance of ULI’s Northern New Jersey chapter. And the program is poised for continued growth with the involvement of Russo Development, which this year became the event sponsor in East Brunswick,
and its newly announced expansion to East Orange.
“UrbanPlan’s focus on responsible and community-oriented development exemplifies the mission of the
Urban Land Institute,” ULI NNJ Executive Director Mara Winokur said recently. “We look forward to building upon the success
of our East Brunswick program as we welcome
the students of East Orange high schools to experience the real estate development and urban planning process in action.”
ULI NNJ notes that UrbanPlan seeks to help students develop a
comprehensive understanding of how market forces such as supply and demand, availability of capital, risk versus reward and others clash and collaborate with non-market forces, including regulation, politics and advocacy to create the built environment. That all culminates
in an annual presentation in which teams present and defend their proposals in front of a volunteer- based mock city council.
As student Afnan Nasir explained, “We were given a fictional area called Elmwood and we had to basically revamp it, put in our own buildings, figure out new apartments and renovations that we had to make and then make sure that it lines up with the sentiments of the neighborhood.”
Aryan Rayana said that, with each student having a different role, “the
BUILDING BLOCKS
Project tour, expansion to new schools helping to grow ULI’s UrbanPlan program for students
By Marlaina Cockcroft
Mara Winokur
Courtesy: Russo Development