KPM Franklin proudly congratulates the Alpha Development team for winning the 2020 NAIOP/University of Central Florida (UCF) Case Competition, a real estate development contest between teams of undergraduate UCF students mentored by volunteer industry experts. Two KPM Franklin staff members were volunteer mentors for the Alpha Development team.
For the competition, teams of four and five students conducted an evaluation of a prime real estate site in Central Florida by performing site planning, environmental, engineering, construction, landscape, specific use and financial analyses. From this body of work, each team created a development plan based on current market conditions and presented it to a panel of industry experts.
Alpha Development’s winning submittal proposed redeveloping the Orlando Fashion Square Mall site into Circle Park Plaza, a living, lifestyle and leisure destination center. The team’s redevelopment proposal included 300 multi-family residential units, a four-story office building, a medical office and surgery center, a boutique hotel, a luxury cinema and the relocation of the existing Target store on Maguire Ave. to anchor more than 500,000 sq. ft. of retail space.
The previous nine winning teams were honored at the conclusion of the annual NAIOP/UCF Case Competition Presentations event. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, team presentations and the winning proposal announcement happened online last week.
Alpha Development was led by Michael Wensinger, chief executive officer, and included Brian Cochrane, chief operating officer; Michael McLamb, chief finance officer; Amanda Schmidt, director of design; and Alex Eastwood, director of marketing.
Alpha Development’s volunteer mentors included KPM Franklin’s Jay Brown, vice president of landscape architecture, and Dustin Brinkman, project manager; V3 Capital Group’s Trey Vick, chief executive officer, and Keith Silverman, development coordinator; Rhodes & Brito Architects’ Adel Shalaby, principal; Ameris Bank’s Rebecca York, vice president of commercial lending; Red Bell Partners’ Nick Jones, managing member; Toll Brothers’ Dustin Bowersett, land acquisition manager; and Archon Commercial Advisors’ co-founders Jon Hellein, Janet Galvin and David Cobb.