Building Tomorrow's CRE Leaders: Inside Wisconsin’s Hands-On Real Estate Graduate Programs

Away from commercial real estate’s power centers is a globally recognized and top-ranked graduate program that offers a holistic, hands-on learning experience for tomorrow’s CRE leaders.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduate students choose from four tracks that blend coursework, case studies, site visits and real-world assignments, culminating in a Master of Science or MBA degree, said Greg Reed, associate director at the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the Wisconsin School of Business.

“Students get a deep understanding of commercial real estate,” Reed said. “Our graduates leave with the skills to step into an array of different roles and responsibilities, whether as a borrower or a lender, or in an acquisition or disposition role.”

The program’s four concentrated tracks are core real estate, private equity investment, applied real estate investment, or AREIT, and affordable and sustainable housing. Reed walked Bisnow through the core tenets of the program and how they prepare students for a future in CRE. 

From Theory To Practice: Real-World Investment Responsibilities

The AREIT and real estate private equity programs place actual fiduciary responsibilities on students. Students manage a portfolio of live REIT stocks, a fund that has grown to almost $2M since being seeded by alumni with $100K in the early 2000s.

“It gives students the experience of being a portfolio manager or REIT analyst,” Reed said.

At the beginning of the school year, students put together an investment thesis and framework and present it for approval to a board of active market participants.

Launched in 2020, the private equity track also offers students the real-world opportunity to deploy capital. Students analyze live deals and pitch the ones they select to an investment committee drawn from alumni and industry heavy hitters.

“The real estate private equity program prepares students to present investment opportunities like the best in the business and follows those investments with ongoing asset management reports to the fund investors,” said Mark Eppli, director of the real estate private equity track. “No other university requires the students to fully underwrite and manage the private equity real estate investment process like this one.”

This hands-on experience appealed to Ian Wright, who had interacted with a variety of real estate developers and investors while working for a bank after earning his bachelor's degree. He said he sought to transition to the ownership side of real estate, which led him to pursue a dual-track MBA at UW-Madison on the AREIT and PE tracks, akin to a double major, and to focus on public and private real estate investing.

“Beyond market analysis, the AREIT program honed both my quantitative and qualitative skill sets,” Wright said. “The program also significantly boosted my presentation skills, allowing me to confidently present complex investment philosophies and strategies in a professional board environment.”

Wright said the program equipped him with skills and knowledge that will be a significant advantage as he progresses through his real estate career.

He is now a finance associate at Continental Properties, a Wisconsin-based, privately held national multifamily and commercial real estate developer, owner and operator.

Impactful, Affordable And Sustainable

In 2023, inspired by student interest, UW-Madison added a graduate program that combines the urgent topics of housing affordability and sustainability.

“Everyone wants to do work that is meaningful,” Reed said. “Young people, and not-so-young people as well, are prioritizing making a positive impact on the big challenges facing the United States and the world. Today, the housing affordability crisis and climate change are high on the list of those big challenges.” 

The curriculum of this track covers low-income housing tax credits, LEED certification and Energy Star ratings.

“We made a conscious decision to house this track in the business school, rather than in the urban and regional planning program,” Reed said. “You can design the most innovative building using experimental materials and technologies, but if it isn't financially feasible, it is unlikely to get built.”

The Graaskamp Center for Real Estate also offers a classic core real estate track, focused on development coursework.

“I liken it to a buffet,” Reed said. “It includes required courses, but with a lot of optionality beyond that.”

A Strong Global Alumni Network

The Graaskamp Center’s alumni network, known as the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association, has more than 2,000 members based all over the U.S. and around the world.

Blair Steele completed the one-year program and received an M.S. in real estate and urban land economics from the Wisconsin School of Business in 2024. She is now an associate in Barings' hotel group.

“I chose the program specifically because of the strong real estate alumni association,” Steele said. “You work on a team, which lets you put your heads together and learn from each other. I left the program with amazing professional relationships and friendships.”

The curriculum provided exposure to the entire life cycle of real estate investment, from sourcing the deal to asset management to executing an exit, Steele said. 

“The environment my professors were able to create in the classroom was very similar to real-world experience,” she said.

While located in the Upper Midwest, the program provides many opportunities to travel in the U.S. and abroad and see the built-world impact of abstract real estate investment decisions. These take the form of site visits and in-person interactions with prospective employers and professional contacts through events and internships.

“We don’t have a major metropolitan area at our doorstep, so we create opportunities for students to travel to diverse urban destinations to learn about real estate markets here and abroad,” Reed said.

Putting Yourself In Someone Else's Shoes

While the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate teaches technical, quantitative skills, it also instills values and pushes students to think about the human impact of real estate decisions.

“We teach that the biggest building you can build on a site isn’t necessarily the best use of that site,” Reed said. “Being able to put yourself in the place of the neighborhood to understand what some of their concerns might be is a critical skill in commercial real estate. Just because your Excel model spits out a number, doesn’t mean it’s the right answer.”

It is the responsibility of the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate to teach its grad students how to reach the right answer, he added.

To learn more about the graduate programs of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at Wisconsin School of Business, click here.

This article was produced in collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.