Letter from Leadership
It is our pleasure to share this annual report highlighting the 2025-2026 academic year at the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate. The pages that follow reflect another year of growth, innovation, and engagement across the Columbia Business School real estate community, while underscoring the Center's continued commitment to advancing education, research, and collaboration with industry leaders.
The Center exists to support and strengthen Columbia Business School’s MBA Real Estate Program by creating meaningful connections between the classroom and the industry. Through academic programming, faculty research, student engagement, alumni outreach, and partnerships with industry leaders, we create opportunities that enrich the student experience, strengthen the Columbia real estate community, and contribute to the future of the industry.
This year was marked by several important milestones that expanded both the reach and impact of the Center. The Milstein Center Research Lab officially launched and quickly established itself as a platform for rigorous scholarship and timely analysis of the issues shaping real estate markets and the built environment. Through original research and regularly published Featured Viewpoints authored by faculty and industry experts, the Lab is fostering meaningful dialogue among academics, practitioners, and policymakers. This spring, the Lab also introduced the Columbia CompStak Rent Index (CCRI), the first quality-adjusted commercial real estate rent index based on net effective rents, providing a new benchmark for measuring rent performance across US office, retail, and industrial markets.
Innovation in the classroom remained a priority as the MBA Real Estate Program continued to evolve alongside the industry it serves. New courses and experiential learning opportunities challenged students to engage with emerging issues facing cities and real estate markets, while a new series of practitioner-led “Bootcamp” workshops provided hands-on exposure to specialized sectors including data centers and hospitality. Together, these initiatives strengthened the connection between academic learning and industry practice.
The Center also expanded opportunities for alumni and industry engagement. The Real Estate Circle entered a new phase of growth, broadening its leadership structure and advancing a strategic vision designed to strengthen engagement across generations and geographies. Alumni connected through conferences, networking events, and regional programs hosted in cities across the United States and internationally, reinforcing the strength of Columbia’s global real estate community.
We were equally excited to launch the Real Estate Forum podcast, hosted by Raphael Sidelsky ’99. Through conversations with leading investors, developers, executives, and innovators, the podcast has expanded the Center’s ability to share ideas, showcase industry perspectives, and engage audiences well beyond campus. Alongside the Research Lab, it represents an important investment in the Center’s mission to generate knowledge, elevate thought leadership, and broaden the reach of Columbia Business School’s real estate platform.
These accomplishments are possible because of the generosity, engagement, and partnership of our supporters. We are deeply grateful to the alumni, donors, faculty, students, and industry leaders whose contributions make this work possible. Your support enables us to invest in innovative programming, advance important research, strengthen our global community, and create transformative opportunities for current and future generations of Columbia Business School students.
We hope this report provides a meaningful look at the impact of your support and the accomplishments of our community over the past year. As we look ahead, we remain energized by the opportunities before us and excited to continue building on the strong foundation that has made the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate a leading platform for education, research, and industry engagement.
With gratitude,
David Sherman '82
Co-Director, Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate
Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh
Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate
Co-Director, Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate
Kristin Svenningsen
Senior Managing Director, Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate
300
Real Estate Association Numbers
114
Real Estate Circle Members
34
Real Estate Forum Members
30
Events Presented for Students
30
Events Presented for Alumni & Industry
4
Events Presented for Faculty
3
Academic Conference Sponsorships
84
Guest Speakers in Classroom
Curriculum
13 Real Estate Courses
- 8 full-term, 5 half-term electives
- Introduced new half-term course “Cities Disrupted: Cities Transformed” co-taught by Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh and Melissa Román Burch
- A milestone year: enrollment climbed to an all-time high of 980 students
- CBS team placed 2nd at 2025 Berkadia & NYU Stern Multifamily Investment Case Competition and 2026 Kellogg Real Estate Venture Case Competition
Executive Education
- Real Estate Investing (2 sessions/year, in person on campus)
- Real Estate Investing Strategies (Online, 6-week sessions, ongoing)
- Custom Real Estate Executive Education programs
Teaching
- 4 Full-time Faculty Members
- 12 Adjunct Professors
- Newly appointed adjunct: Melissa Román Burch
Key Center Resources
- Dedicated staff supporting real estate faculty and adjuncts in the classroom, as well as onboarding of new faculty members
- Dedicated staff supporting real estate alumni relations and development
- Student grants that underwrite and offset various experiential learning opportunities
Milstein Center Research Lab
- 4 dedicated Staff Officers of Research for real estate
- A dedicated computing environment, data, tools, subscriptions, and memberships (for research, teaching, and student recruiting/research)
- Real Capital Analytics, CoreLogic, Trepp, Green Street, CompStak, NAREIT, ARGUS, PREA, RS Means, NCREIF, A.CRE Accelerator
CBS RE, Columbia Business School’s online and mobile app alumni platform dedicated to the real estate community, serves as the central hub for all alumni engagement and communication. It connects 2,000+ active alumni across 36 US states (including Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico) and 39 countries, spanning graduation years from 1964 to 2027.
Recognition, Applied Research, and Media
Recognition
- Professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh's publication Flattening the Curve: Pandemic-Induced Revaluation of Real Estate was ranked by the Financial Times as one of the top 10 academic works with high societal impact.
- Professor Tomasz Piskorski was featured as a keynote address speaker at the 2026 American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association National Conference. He presented on "Modern Financial Intermediation: The Rise of Non-Banks and Its Implications for Real Estate Finance."
Select Publications and Thought Leadership
- Private Credit, Balance Sheets and Financial Stability, April 2026
- Authors: Gregor Matvos, Tomasz Piskorski and Amit Seru
- Manufacturing Risk-free government debt, Journal of Financial Economics, February 2026
- Authors: Zhengyang Jiang, Hanno Lustig, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, and Mindy Xiaolan
- Understanding Rationality and Disagreement in House Price Expectations, Review of Financial Studies, February 2026
- Authors: Zigang Li, Wang Renxuan, and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh
- Bond Convenience Yields in the Eurozone Currency Union, Review of Financial Studies, 2026, forthcoming
- Authors: Zhengyang Jiang, Hanno Lustig, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, and Mindy Xiaolan
- Rent Guarantee Insurance, Journal of Political Economy, 2026, forthcoming
- Authors: Boaz Abramson and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh
- Beyond the Balance Sheet Model of Banking: Implications for Bank Regulation and Monetary Policy, 2026, forthcoming
- Authors: Greg Buchak, Gregor Matvos, Tomasz Piskorski, and Amit Seru
- Why is intermediating houses so difficult? Evidence from iBuyers, November 2025
- Authors: Greg Buchak, Gregor Matvos, Tomasz Piskorski, and Amit Ser
- Monetary Tightening and U.S. Bank Fragility in 2023: Mark-to-Market Losses and Uninsured Depositor Runs?, November 2025
- Authors: Erica Jiang, Gregor Matvos, Tomasz Piskorski, and Amit Seru
- The Equilibrium Effects of Eviction Policies, Journal of Finance, May 2026
- Authors: Boaz Abramson
Melissa Román Burch
Melissa Román Burch is a dynamic leader with more than 20 years of experience in both the private and public sectors, known for her expertise in real estate, economic development, and urban innovation. She most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), where she oversaw a 64-million-square-foot urban real estate portfolio spanning industrial complexes, ports and waterfront infrastructure, mixed-use commercial hubs, and innovation campuses.
At NYCEDC, Burch spearheaded major economic development transactions, initiated public-private investments, and positioned city assets to catalyze growth in life sciences, advanced manufacturing, technology, and clean energy. Her career includes senior leadership roles at Lendlease and Forest City, where she delivered landmark projects such as the Pacific Park Brooklyn redevelopment anchored by the Barclays Center Arena, the Union Theological Seminary campus transformation, and the Cornell Tech applied sciences campus designed to strengthen collaboration between academia and industry.
A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, Burch is an active civic leader and a current or former trustee of numerous nonprofit organizations.
Faculty Media Highlights
Members of the faculty conducting research under the Milstein Center were cited for their perspective and expertise more than 50 times in major press outlets this year.
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MBA Real Estate Program Enrollments
(based on Fall, Spring, and Summer semester sequence)
REAL ESTATE COURSE | 2024–2025 | 2025–2026 |
|---|---|---|
(E)MBA Real Estate Finance (Fall, Spring, Summer) | 463 | 432 |
Real Estate Transactions (Fall) | 41 | 57 |
Real Estate Equity Securities Analysis (Fall) | 37 | 47 |
Real Estate Debt Markets (Fall) | 55 | 59 |
Advanced Seminar in Real Estate (Spring) | 29 | Not offered |
Global Real Estate Investment (Spring) | 43 | 49 |
Capstone: Real Estate Investment (Spring – Formerly RE Projects Class) | 25 | 28 |
Cities Disrupted, Cities Transformed (Fall – new course as of Fall 2025) | 47 | |
Real Estate Development (Spring) | 44 | 48 |
Residential Real Estate: Dirt, Debt, and Derivatives (new course as of Fall 2019) | 73 | 72 |
Distressed Real Estate Investing (new course as of Spring 2021) | 34 | 34 |
Real Estate Analytics (new course as of 2022) | Not offered | 42 |
EMBA Real Estate Block Week (Spring) | 52 | 65 |
Total | 896 | 980 |