Pressemitteilungen

Houston, TX, May 15, 2009 – The University of San Diego has won the 2009 ARGUS Software University Challenge. The panel of industry veteran judges selected one first prize winner, two second prize winners, and two third prize winners for this competition.

Second prize went to Arizona State University and Baruch College; while the third place awards were given to the University of Colorado and the University of North Carolina. The first place team was headed by University of San Diego professors Charles Tu, Ph.D and Ines Kraft, Ph.D with student participation by Bob Brittingham, Brent Farrell, John Hundley, Bryce Lewis and Sasha Zhang.

The case was written by Jeffrey D. Fisher, Ph.D. and Robert S. Martin, MAI. Fisher stated that "our goal was to have a case that required students to think about all the factors that must be considered when evaluating an investment in commercial real estate in an emerging market and then decide how to incorporate these factors into the valuation of the property using ARGUS, which is designed to value income producing real estate like office buildings with existing tenants and value vacant land that can be developed."

Fisher also indicated that "Factors that needed to be considered included things like how much space was likely to be leased in the market, market rental rates for lease renewals and for newly developed space, the rate of return that investors would require to invest in the property, and even possible variations in exchange rates."

"ARGUS is ideal for a case like this because it has language conversion capability that allows investors in different countries to see the results of a property valuation in their native language which is important as the real estate market has become global," noted Lynn Clarke, global director of training for ARGUS Software.

Elaine Worzala, one of the judges and a professor at Clemson University added, "The teams all did an excellent job using ARGUS to help them solve a complicated real estate investment decision. It is wonderful how ARGUS has partnered with university real estate programs to make sure that the next generation of real estate professionals will be able to hit the ground running because they have practiced and perfected their ARGUS skills while in school."

Another judge, Michael Sorich MAI, CRE, FRICS, of Orlando-based Tropical Realty Advisers LLC said, "The ARGUS College Challenge provides a competitive environment, allowing students to apply practical real estate solutions by using Argus DCF in a case study format. As a review panel participant, I was amazed at how well the students grasped the variety of issues set forth, applied solutions via the ARGUS modeling program, and explained their results."

A complete listing of the participants in the 2009 ARGUS Software University Challenge follows:

• First Place:  University of San Diego

Academic  Sponsor: Charles Tu, Ph.D and Ines Kraft, Ph.D
Team Members:  Bob Brittingham, Brent Farrell, John Hundley, Bryce Lewis, Sasha Zhang 

• Second Place:  Arizona State University

Academic  Sponsor:  Crocker Liu, Ph.D
Team Members:    Jeremy Kelstrom, William Pappa,  Jonathan Duke, Kyle Askine, Kyle Deatherage

• Second Place:  Baruch College

Academic  Sponsor:  John Goering, Ph.D
Team Members:    Robert Defina,  Adam Jacobs, Albert Dayan, Ilya Shnayder,  Joel Neuenhaus

• Third Place:  University of Colorado

Academic  Sponsor:  Thomas Thibodeau, Ph.D
Team Members:   Geoff Madding, Lindsey Fudge, Shaun Duigan , Kyle Mason

• Third Place:  University of North Carolina

Academic  Sponsor:  Wally Bourdy, Ph.D
Team Members:   Meghan Chandler, Nir Goldberg, Lindsay McCombs, Travis Smith, Mark Whitney

Media Contacts:

For ARGUS Software:
Jennifer Brenner Andrade
VP Marketing Communications
ARGUS Software
Phone: +1-713-341-3630