Real Estate at the College of Charleston 2007

Real Estate is a new field for the School of Business and Economics at the College of Charleston. The real estate program is funded by appropriations from the State budget. The program is complemented by the Carter Center in Real Estate, thanks to a generous gift by Ben Carter, his wife, Tricia, and his mother, Jane Middleton Carter. The academic home for the program is the Department of Economics and Finance.

The academic home for the program is the Department of Economics and Finance. There are currently two faculty assigned to support the real estate program: Jon Wiley, Ph.D. (Interim Director) and Justin Benefield, Ph.D. This year the department has also benefited from the professional experience of Lynn Crooks, J.D., who has been teaching one of the sections of Principles of Real Estate.

The Department has its own Internship Coordinator, Tracy Clifford, who supervises internships for economics, finance, and real estate. Recruiting is currently under way to hire two permanent staff members and one additional faculty member in real estate.

There are a number of courses in real estate offered by tthe department. Students currently interested in real estate typically minor in finance, since all of the real estate related courses count for the finance minor/concentration. However, the real estate courses are available to all business administration majors.

During the Fall semester of 2007, the Department introduced two new initiatives in real estate: the Student Real Estate Club and the Real Estate Executive Speaker Series.  The Department also sponsors a regular seminar series. A number of interesting papers related to real estate were presented this year.

Construction of the Carter Center in Real Estate has been completed. The Center is located on the Fourth Floor of the Beatty Building (School of Business and Economics).

We hope that over the following months and years the Carter Center in Real Estate will grow to become a perceptive and central role between students, academics, and the real estate community in the region.  Towards this end, we are currently working hard on a number of other initiatives.  We look forward to sharing more about our progress soon.