The Rocky Mountain Real Estate Challenge, a competition between University of Colorado and University of Denver business school graduate students to design commercial real estate projects, will be focused this year on Peak Innovation Park, the 900-acre development site at the Colorado Springs Airport.
Top teams of students from CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business and DU’s Daniels College of Business will work with industry professionals in Colorado to design a 25-acre parcel of the business park, said a press release from the Colorado chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, which helps put on the competition with the Land Title Guarantee Company.
The students will focus on designing and financing industrial, retail, hospitality, entertainment, recreation and office space, “creating a sense of place with an urban feel in a suburban setting,” the release said. They will also need to incorporate open spaces to the west and southwest of the site, which lies southeast of the intersection of Milton Proby Parkway and Peak Innovation Parkway, and use “sustainable practices” in development plans, the release said.
Peak Innovation Park’s sponsorship of the competition will attract attention to the Springs and to the development in particular, said Garrett Baum, managing director of Urban Frontier LLC, the master developer of the business park. He noted investors’ growing attraction to the city and its 1.17 percent population growth rate as of 2020.
“Our comprehensive project team believes that sponsoring the NAIOP Real Estate Challenge, in support of the participating university students and programs, will greatly assist in gaining significant visibility to this area and the creation of development plans that are driven by both our vision and market dynamics,” Baum said.
The student teams are competing for scholarships and the 20th annual NAIOP Cup, which is awarded at the beginning of each academic year, according to the development association’s release. The competition also provides them with an opportunity to network and learn from industry leaders.
The teams will have about four months to develop their plans and will present them at an event in downtown Denver on May 3, the release said.