Watch Out Donald Trump!
Top Long Island Real Estate Moguls to Teach New Course at C.W. Post
Course Offers Students a Chance to Study with Americana Manhasset CEO,
Reckson Associates Executive and Other Pros

Brookville, NY — Over a quarter of a million people reportedly auditioned for “The Apprentice 2” and the chance to learn business skills from one of the nation’s top real estate developers. They should have just registered for the new Real Estate Fundamentals course at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, where some of the most distinguished names in the Long Island real estate industry will teach students their own tips, theories and secrets for success. And no one gets fired from these classes.

In a unique method of instruction, the course will be supervised and taught by adjunct professor Alan D. Eidler, Esq., President and CEO of Spiegel Associates, one of the largest private commercial real estate owners and managers on Long Island. Each week, a different top name in real estate will lecture the class on his or her specialty. The names of the “professors” on the course outline reads like a “Who’s Who” list of the best and brightest in real estate on Long Island. Names include John Gutleber, president and CEO of Castagna Realty and the Americana Manhasset, Long Island’s premier luxury shopping center and Walter Smith, Senior Vice President for Operations and Co-Director of the LI Division Operating Committee of Reckson Associates Realty Corp, the tri-state’s leading office and investment trust.

Concerned by a lack of young people entering the real estate profession, the Real Estate Practitioners Institute (REPI), based at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, developed the three-credit undergraduate course hoping to expose students to the industry and help them to understand that real estate can be more than just selling the house down the street. The course will be offered beginning this Fall (classes start September 7) through the Finance Department of C.W. Post’s AACSB International accredited College of Management.

“Our mandate in creating this course is to bring young, bright people into the real estate profession,” said Barry Stein, president of Rohman & Stein Associates, a long-established real estate financing firm that has handled more than $2 billion in real estate and equity financing. Stein is one of the instructors. “We want to expose students to all aspects of the industry while teaching them how to maintain a high level of ethics and knowledge.” Stein is on the executive board of the REPI, serves as chairman of the organization’s education committee and spearheaded the design of the new course, for which he will also serve as a guest lecturer.

The real estate market has suffered in attracting new people since the 1990s, because job interest has shifted to careers in the booming stock market and the Internet. Since 2001, more people are starting to choose real estate as a profession, but not enough. “The economy has changed so much over the years and so has the real estate picture,” said Kathleen Giamo, Chair of the REPI Board as well as President of the Giamo Group, a real estate consulting firm that offers real estate development and advisory services. “For a long time when people thought of real estate they thought residential, but that is just one area. And in commercial real estate you have many different subsidiaries, not just sales.”

“This course is an additional avenue for undergraduates who are considering their career options,” said Robert Guido, a partner with Farrell Fritz P.C., which practices among other things real estate, municipal and banking law. “Since the REPI is charged with keeping the real estate industry alive on Long Island, this course is a natural fit.”

The foundation course is a multi-dimensional program. Its main objective is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the real estate profession, with a focus on the New York Metropolitan and Long Island areas. The core subjects will include real estate development, property management and marketing, legal issues, real estate finance and investment, appraisals, real estate economics and capital markets.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime for anyone whether or not they are considering real estate as a career,” said Gutleber. “Students are going to earn credit while having the opportunity to ask questions of industry leaders. They are going to hear war stories, lessons learned and opportunities missed.”

So that students can get a whole picture of the real estate field, also being introduced with the course is an internship program being offered by the REPI. Participating students who are pre-qualified through the campus’s Professional Experience and Career Planning Office (PEP Office) will participate in paid internships with a broad spectrum of major Long Island employers in the real estate industry, including brokerage houses and banks, law firms and general corporations with real estate departments.

“For students this internship program will open a window into the practical aspect of what life is like when you flip that little tassel and cross over to the other side,” said Herbert Agin, chairman of the board of Sutton & Edwards/TCN Worldwide, the Long Island affiliate of a member-owned international real estate consortium comprised of 52 independent commercial real estate service firms.

Agin said interns in the program will not be doing support work like photocopying and fetching coffee. “The students will be entrenched in what the company does,” he said. “They will learn what working in real estate means. They’ll learn about the politics, the corporate life and how to adapt. These things are crucially important. They will be much better prepared upon graduation.” For local businesses, the program will offer employers the opportunity to look at future employees before making a permanent commitment. “Companies will be able to draw from the students to find qualified employees,” said Giamo.

“The course gives people the chance to see if real estate is an arena which they want to enter,” said Gutleber. “The internship provides a quality, paid position, giving students a chance to decide if this is a career for them. At the same time, this program ensures the real estate industry will prosper and grow with qualified and ethical people,” said Gutleber.

“Experience is the best teacher and these students are going to get the opportunity to learn from the best in the field,” said Giamo.

For more information about the new Real Estate Fundamentals course at C.W. Post, call the Real Estate Practitioner’s Institute at 516-299-3273. To register for the course call Nina Frank at 516-299-2746 or email nina.frank@liu.edu.