Marquette University College of Business has launched a fundraising drive to create the Marquette Center for Real Estate, a research initiative that will compile data on the commercial real estate market in the Milwaukee area.
The center will be created in conjunction with the Robert B. Bell Sr. Chair in Real Estate.
The fund drive is being steered by William Schiel, senior vice president of facilities development for Walgreens, and James Devine, principal and real estate attorney at Newcastle Properties. Both are Marquette alumni.
In a letter to Bell Chair advisors, Schiel and Devine cited the success of the Bell program. About 90 minority students have graduated from the Bell Associates in Commercial Real Estate (ACRE) program. Several of them have launched careers in commercial real estate, according to professor Mark Eppli, chair of the Bell program.
Also, more than 100 Marquette students have elected real estate as their majors, making real estate the fifth-largest major in the College of Business.
"The Marquette Center for Real Estate will ensure that this extraordinary program continues to grow by increasing the number of internships and job placements for our students, strengthening minority research programs, establishing a graduate program and offering regional seminars. To make this a reality, we need a full-time director of real estate outreach to coordinate and guide these activities as well as to spearhead applied research and develop collaborative partnerships both within the university and the regional community," Schiel and Devine said in their letter.
"The local (commercial real estate) community wants more and better research done," Eppli said.
The original funding for the ACRE program was provided by the Helen Bader Foundation. The funding for the next three years of the program will be provided by Mandel Group Inc. in Milwaukee.
