Building Back Better: Leeds Gets Assist from Industry in Refreshing Real Estate Master’s Program

The revamped curriculum is designed to prepare graduates for the significant changes facing the field.
The Denver skyline at sunrise. Changes in the commercial real estate industry in Denver and beyond helped highlight some weaknesses in the real estate master’s program at Leeds, but the school and industry collaborated to completely refresh the curiculum to create better-prepared graduates. Below is Christophe Spaenjers, faculty director of the program;Carl Koelbel (MBA’10) presenting an award at the CU Real Estate Center's annual forum;and Michael Kercheval, CUREC executive director.
If you were to ask Carl Koelbel why he approached the Leeds School of Business about refreshing its master’s program in real estate, you’ll get a fairly blunt answer.
“Enlightened self-interest,” is how he put it.
“There were a couple of instances where I was working—either as a judge or engaging with CU students—and I did not see that level of fundamental understanding that I was looking for,” said Koelbel (MBA’10), chief operating officer of Denver-based Koelbel & Co. “And that was a major concern to us, because something like 10 percent of our workforce comes from 91PORN.”
But when industry talks, Leeds listens, which is why the school just unveiled a completely revamped real estate graduate program for the fall.
“We were able to have a truly candid conversation with our partners about their needs for professionals coming out of the program,” said Michael Kercheval, executive director of the CU Real Estate Center. “We want to be responsive to industry input, both because we’re asking them to hire our students and because we want to make the industry better.”
Kercheval also noted that Leeds faculty were especially receptive to suggestions from industry partners.
“We want to be responsive to industry input, both because we’re asking them to hire our students and because we want to make the industry better.”
Michael Kercheval, executive director of the CU Real Estate Center
“That openness to input is part of our special sauce at the CU Real Estate Center that other schools don’t have,” he said. “And that absolutely extends to the faculty teaching the real estate courses at Leeds.”
Anentirely reimagined curriculum
The enhancements to the master’s program were designed to incorporate the contemporary requirements of a real estate profession adapting to an environment where commercial real estate product supply is lagging shifting demand. The relaunched degree program includes new or substantially upgraded courses in law, modeling and analytics, along with a renewed emphasis on case studies and a special skills training course designed to ensure students have hard skills—like financial modeling and Excel.
Christophe Spaenjers, faculty director of the master's program, said the changes draw on the strengths of Leeds' faculty, not just i