CU and DU Face Off in Challenge

Tabor Center is owned by Chicago-based Equity Office Properties and is considered a prime development site in Downtown.

The event sponsored by the Colorado chapter of NAIOP will be judged by some of the biggest players in commercial real estate in Denver. Judges include: Bill Pauls, of the Pauls Corp., Bill Mosher, of Mosher Sullivan Development Partners; Steve Clarke, Prime West Cos.; Barry Dorfman, Staubach Co.; Mary Sullivan, CB Richard Ellis; Jonathan Bush, Lowe Enterprises; Jim Neenan, the Neenan Co.; Jimmy Miller, Miller Global Properties; Evan Kline, the Frederick Ross Co; and Steve Bye, NorthMarq Capital Group.

The competition pits students from the Leeds School of Business at CU against the Daniels College of Business.

The Tabor Center site was originally designed for a high-rise office tower.

"For 20 years, this tower has been waiting to be built, and these students think they have a solution," says Byron Koste, director of the Leeds School Real Estate Center.

Peter Tibble, who will graduate in June from DU with a combined MBA and MS in real estate and construction management, says planning for the competition is invaluable.

"We were able to get hands on experience developing and drawing the actual plans of our proposed development," Tibble says. "Understanding and learning the processes necessary to bring a development of this size to market is a valuable lesson we could not have learned just from a textbook."

The winning team receives a $2,500 prize and a NAIOP cup trophy. The losing team receives $1,500.

Last year, CU won for its development plan for the 50-acre former Gates Rubber Factory site at I-25 and Broadway, which is being developed into a mixed-use community by Cherokee Denver.