The Accelerated Master of Real Estate Development program, a transdisciplinary program supported by the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and three other colleges and schools at Arizona State University, is featured in the September-October 2007 issue of Arizona Commercial Real Estate magazine.
     The article, by reporter Kerry Duff, is headlined, "Influential Education: ASU offers an MRED program, one of only five in the nation preparing people to be real estate developers."
     The fast-paced, 30-week program provides a broad overview of the entire real estate development process, from site selection and project conceptualization through financing, construction and ultimately, disposition.
      The magazine reported that guest speakers the first year included Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon; Greg Vogel of Land Advisors Organization; Grady Gammage Jr., attorney at Gammage & Burnham in Phoenix; Fred Unger, developer of SouthBridge in downtown Scottsdale; and representatives from Westcor, Red Development, Kierland Commons, Vestar Development Co. and the banking industry.
     The program is designed to attract professionals who want to advance or change their careers, according to Gary Birnbaum, managing director of the Phoenix law firm Mariscal, Weeks, McIntyre & Friedlander, P.A., and associate dean for graduate studies and program development at the College of Law. Birnbaum is one of four core faculty members in the program.
     Thirty students graduated last May and 36 are enrolled this year, including five with law degrees, five MBAs, 11 with business degrees and 10 with design or architecture degrees.
      The program, housed in a new space in the College Avenue Marketplace building behind the Fulton Center, is a collaboration of the College of Law, the W.P. Carey School of Business, the College of Design and the Del E. Webb School of Construction.
      "It's a unique program and it ties in directly with what (ASU President) Dr. Michael Crow calls 'the new American University,' " Birnbaum told the magazine. "It's transdisciplinary and designed to bring the practical world and university together and we're making great progress.
      "W.P. Carey School of Business offers an MBA in real estate finance, and it's a fine program," Birnbaum said. "But we're creating people with experience who can run a development team, company or process for themselves or someone else."