{"id":58791,"date":"2019-08-19T14:15:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T18:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=58791"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:30:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:30:39","slug":"real-estate-development-certificate","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/real-estate-development-certificate\/","title":{"rendered":"Certificate in Real Estate Development Teaches Real World Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Certificate in Real Estate Development Teaches Real World Skills\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

You could say that real estate developers are project managers par excellence<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly they are entrepreneurs and risk-takers whose massive projects generate jobs and investment, and whose decisions shape the city, including the homes and workplaces where we spend our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet even in this age of increasing professionalization, most developers, who come from any number of backgrounds, still learn by doing. Few development-specific educational programs exist in Canada\u2014which may be why a new collaboration at Carleton University between the Sprott School of Business<\/a> and the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism<\/a> is proving so popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Certificate in Real Estate Development<\/a>, a 12-day part-time professional development program that unfolds in four modules over five months, launches this October and enrolment has been brisk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe may need a wait list,\u201d reports Calvin Tong, director of Sprott Professional Programs<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of registrations from the Greater Toronto Area and other regions outside our usual catchment area, which is interesting. I think this speaks to our recognizing an underserviced need and then creating a fairly unique, quality program in response.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Calvin Tong<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReal estate development is an area of expertise that is not well served by traditional degree programs,\u201d explains Architecture Prof. Benjamin Gianni, who is helping co-ordinate the new program.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThis is largely because land development is so varied and involves so many different disciplines.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The range of people who play a role in development is impressively wide, from investors, lawyers and bankers to city planners, architects and engineers\u2014not to mention surveyors, contractors, sales and marketing specialists, leasing agents and property managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of these groups are represented in the new program by industry leaders, who make up the majority of the program\u2019s numerous instructors and guest speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe students interested in our program will likely have been trained in one area but not in others,” says Gianni. “Exposing them to all of these areas of expertise within the same curriculum so they can understand what the various roles and responsibilities are and how they all fit together, is a really unique proposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did a lot of thinking about who were the most qualified people in Ottawa to deal with each of the topic areas,\u201d Gianni adds. \u201cWe tapped the best of local expertise and also invited some of the top professionals from across Canada to contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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A Grounded, Holistic Approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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A working group comprising faculty members, developers and other real estate professionals created the curriculum, but its content is evergreen and responsive. \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to hone it probably right up to the October launch, and then after we deliver the first round of coursework, it will evolve to reflect market and industry changes, as well as our understanding of what is relevant and what participants need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gianni is particularly excited about what he calls the program\u2019s holistic approach.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe challenge for us was to design a program that is extremely grounded and practical while also exploring how private land development contributes to the community as a whole. This goes to the larger question of city building: how do individual projects work together to create a cohesive built environment?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Spoiler alert for prospective participants: design thinking — a term describing an iterative process that combines analysis and creativity and is a bit of a buzzword in the business world — will play a role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way we do things in architecture and in design is becoming more of a paradigm in education generally,\u201d Gianni reflects. \u201cIt\u2019s project-based and iterative, and it\u2019s collaborative. A colleague at the school says that architects are skilled not only at problem solving, but at problem setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prof. Benjamin Gianni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArchitects take discussions with different client groups, translate these into sets of needs, then check these against space requirements, costs and so on. Design thinking is not only about proposing solutions, but about ways of defining the problem to be able to assess it from a range of different angles and time frames.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By way of example, Gianni describes a consultation with a local developer.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cAfter looking at the land acquisition costs, he determined that he needed to achieve a floor area ratio of 2.0 for the project to be viable, and he was looking for the most expedient way to achieve this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A ratio of 2.0 means that the amount of built space is double the buildable area of the site; for example, a two-storey building over the whole site, a four-storey building over half the site, or an eight-storey building over a quarter of the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy response was, well, we also need to explore what the site can support, what\u2019s compatible with the community, what you will likely be allowed to build, and what you\u2019ll be able to sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA give-and-take needs to happen in the context of the range of issues at play, and that\u2019s design thinking as well.  It\u2019s looking at the project holistically. We promote the so-called triple bottom line, i.e., the need for all projects to be sustainable from environmental, economic and social perspectives. While economic viability is a given for the developer\/risk-taker, it\u2019s the beginning of a much broader discussion involving a wider range of issues and stakeholders. These conversations are especially important when developing land in or near the urban core.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, conversations like this are increasingly rare, and in many cases the key decisions that determine the shape of a building, what goes where and what form it will take, have been made long before the project lands on an architect\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Helping Architectural Students Understand How Developers Think<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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The School of Architecture\u2019s strong engagement with the city\u2019s development community came about in part to address this situation and help architectural students understand how developers think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the fourth-year housing studio, students work with some of the major developers in Ottawa to set targets for residential and commercial units in areas of the city that are likely to redevelop in the near future. The students visualize how those targets translate into built form, create scenarios around how the forms interact with the surrounding neighbourhood and then solicit feedback from the community.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIn Ottawa, the planning approval process is confidential until the development application is actually filed, at which point community consultation is tightly circumscribed by provincial policies,\u201d says Gianni.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cGenerally, huge amounts of money are put in upfront such that, by the time the application goes in, the developer has pretty much made up his or her mind about what is going to happen.  As a result, communities feel blindsided and the relationship becomes confrontational.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe realized that the school can make a great contribution to this process,\u201d he continues. \u201cBy getting involved early on, students can develop proposals that developers can review and discuss along with community members. All of the parties get to know each other and talk through issues long before a formal development proposal is filed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More conversations with the developers followed, focusing on what role the school could play to promote better design in the built environment and encourage a stronger awareness among all parties of the importance of city building. The discussions expanded to include the Sprott School of Business and the certificate program was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Tong, the advantages of the new program are obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s workplace, you need to continually upskill and this program is a great way to do that because it\u2019s quick, it\u2019s relevant, it helps participants build new networks and partnerships, and it\u2019s aligned with the needs expressed by the business community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he, too, sees that it\u2019s not just participants who will benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cOur interdisciplinary and design thinking approach makes our Certificate in Real Estate Development<\/a> truly a unique program and it will have a significant and tangible impact on our community,\u201d Tong predicts.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe are going to have a lasting effect, not only by building future leaders in real estate development in Ottawa and in the province, but by contributing to how our cityscape evolves for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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You could say that real estate developers are project managers par excellence. Certainly they are entrepreneurs and risk-takers whose massive projects generate jobs and investment, and whose decisions shape the city, including the homes and workplaces where we spend our lives. Yet even in this age of increasing professionalization, most developers, who come from any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":58806,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28,25,1592],"cu_story_tag":[1918,1922],"class_list":["post-58791","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_type-teaching-learning","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-engineering-and-design","cu_story_tag-sprott-school-of-business"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/58791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/58791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97311,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/58791\/revisions\/97311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=58791"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=58791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}