2023 Real Estate & Banking Case Competition

On March 9, 2023, the Center for Real Estate and Excellence in Banking programs of the Texas Tech University - Rawls College of Business hosted their Real Estate and Banking Case Competition. Six (6) teams of graduate and undergraduate students from the Excellence in Banking (EiB), Certificate in Commercial Real Estate (CREL), and Master of Science in Finance (MSF) programs presented their evaluations of a commercial real estate redevelopment to a panel of commercial real estate and banking professionals.

The teams' presentations were the final product of their research and analysis of a proposed office-to-housing conversion at 2100 Ross Avenue, Dallas, Texas. Over the course of only two weeks, the students analyzed market conditions, developed a business plan for the conversion, conducted a feasibility analysis, and summarized their findings with (1) a written report, (2) a financial model, and (3) an oral presentation.

The case prompt emphasized capital structuring considerations and required the student teams to answer questions such as:

• How do you propose to finance the project?
• What is the capital structure (allocated between debt and equity) of your team’s proposed redevelopment plan?
• What factors should your team consider when pursuing equity investors for the project?
• What type of lender should be targeted to provide debt financing?
• What type of loan structure are you proposing?
• What risks would a lender likely consider when deciding whether to provide financing for this redevelopment?

To simulate a real-world scenario, each team was paired with a commercial banking mentor from PlainsCapital Bank and provided with access to commercial real estate market data by Trepp, Inc.

The judging panel consisted of Russ Webb of Silver Oak Commercial Realty , Jimmy H. Jackson, MAI of Integra Realty Resources , David R. Quintanilla and Steve Barkowsky of PlainsCapital Bank , and Erin Liberatore-Timko , Lonnie Hendry, CRE , and Stephen Buschbom of Trepp, Inc.

After the competition, the competitors, judges, sponsors, and mentors gathered for a reception where the following places were announced:

• First Place: Emily Anderson , Blaire Crump , Travis Flinchbaugh , Walker Hemphill
• Second Place: Roque L. Alaniz , Maxwell Noble , Sara Noll , Sara Warner
• Third Place: Grant Fleming , Ben Fonville , Jared Hoffman , Nathan Smith

The winning teams received trophies to commemorate their success. Thanks to generous sponsorships from S2 Capital and PlainsCapital Bank , all of the students who competed received a cash award.