MS.RED Spring 2013 Course Descriptions

This course will look at commercial leasing from both a landlord and tenant perspective, and contain both legal and business analysis of the most important provisions and issues in leasing today. It will provide a firm basis for understanding space leases as the revenue stream behind building operations, financing and profits. Allocation of risks related to the provision of space in a building will be a consistent thread in the conversation. The reading will include clauses from standard leases and articles about the subject matter, as well as some court decisions that illuminate the complexities and conflicts.

This course will study the issues that impact an asset from initial investment through disposition, with a particular focus on leasing, repositioning strategies, hold-sell analysis, and operations. The focus will be to demonstrate how effective asset management works with property management, leasing, construction/development and accounting to maximize financial performance. Overall, the class will emphasize real-world issues and examples through the life cycle of an asset.

In the world of capital like in nature, what works and adapts; spreads. Architects, planners and developers attempt to reproduce the structure of London, New York, Paris or Barcelona; the success of landmarks like the Highline, the Tate, the Guggenheim, the sense of place of Grand Central, Gare du Nord and King’s Cross Stations yet the formulas that gave us these localized interventions are often elusive or insufficient. Beijing or Mexico City population is 20 million and growing at a rapid rate, while the cities often used as models, Paris (2 million), Barcelona (1.6 million), New York or London (7 million) rarely reach that population or growth rate. In Generic City (1993), Koolhaas describes a future successfully dense yet indistinct city. In this scenario, people have blended beyond recognizable racial traces; cities have copied each other’s salient traits; all territories regardless
of geographic or climatic challenges have been conquered at a relentless pace producing similar cities all over the globe. In this narrative the generic city thrives yet upon arrival can be confused with any other. The transit hubs are seamless, density triumphant, and work ethic prevalent. Koolhaas positions this scenario as aspiration and as cautionary tale. Later in 2008, CCTV counters his own argument by providing Beijing with a distinct powerful icon.

• Are we to propose iconicity and identity as productive counterparts to density and capital expansion?
• What makes the iconic enduring or merely fashionable?
• What proportion of iconic to generic gives us a successful transnational capital?
• Can cities provide a more productive and stable identity and overtake nationalism or ethnic pride?

The agenda for this join studio is to produce possible real design proposals for development of a hyper dense and iconic mixed use transit oriented site of no less than 1 million square feet in London. (Specific site(s) to be release at January 23 presentation) The studio is composed of ten architecture students and ten development students. The goal imbedded in mixing Architecture and Development students is to arrive at proposals that are conceptual, strategic and quantifiable where economy plays a commanding role. Architecture students are lead by Galia Solomonoff while Development students are led by Vishaan Chakrabarti. Further the studio counts with the weight and support of Paul Katz and James Von Klemperer, principals at KPF, who will lecture and participate in key reviews. A set of visit to KPF offices in New York and London will provide access to current precedents (Hudson Yards, China Central Place, Beijing, Hong Kong Bridge) being developed and built by the firm. The aim is to become familiar with the complexities of creating similar applicable models of development for cities in different regions of the world where capital is expanding at a rapid rate.
(By application only)

This course provides an introduction to international real estate development and investment with lectures on relevant capital market finance trends, legal system variability, portfolio management, alternative investment theories and vehicles, and cyclical market dynamics. The course takes students through a series of independent exercises which build a macro-economic, regulatory, and financial blue-print for investing in Brazil, China, India, France, U.K. and the United States (Regional Electives).

The success of the shopping center is driven by a combination of the strength of the real estate and the retailer. In the case of retail real estate, the success of the retailer is arguably more correlated to the fundamentals of the underlying real estate than the tenants of other asset classes such as office and industrial. The course will discuss retail real estate from the perspective of both the retailer and the landlord / developer. A thorough understanding of the retailer's business model will increase the likelihood of success for retail real estate investors and developers. At the same time, the class will review the primary considerations of the retail developer and owner, including tenant mix, shopping center design, leasing, and valuation. A strong emphasis is placed on leasing and financial valuation. The lease not only outlines the economics of rent and expenses; it also establishes various rights and restrictions of both the landlord and that tenant.

The course covers all major facets of underwriting the repositioning of income-producing commercial real estate from a lending perspective. Students will learn how to effectively underwrite transitional office, retail, industrial, multifamily and hotel properties. Emphasis is to be placed on loan structure, interest reserve analysis, LIBOR caps, reposition timing, credit evaluation, market analysis and sponsorship. Exit strategies including permanent takeout financing and loan sales will also be discussed.