Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship

Fairfax City and Mason have partnered to give students access to experiential learning opportunities that will benefit local businesses and students.

Fairfax City mayor and George Mason University alumna Catherine S. Read (BA ’84) and George Mason University School of Business Dean Ajay Vinzé will sign a partnership agreement on October 2 aimed at promoting economic growth in the city while giving students access to experiential learning opportunities that will benefit local businesses and students. 

“Northern Virginia has been No. 1 for economic mobility in the past four decades,” said Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship Director Eric Maribojoc. But the market is not producing enough housing for 60,000 new residents expected next decade.

Since the Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship’s (CREE) inception a dozen years ago, its advisory board, comprised of the region’s senior leaders from across the real estate industry, has been a staunch supporter of developing the next generation. As both the center and the master’s in real estate development program (MRED) mature, former students who have advanced in the careers and become industry leaders themselves, are coming back to support the program that helped them along their way.

Eric Maribojoc, executive director of the Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship, joined Arlington Board Chair Katie Cristol and other housing researchers on Arlington TV for a wide-ranging discussion on housing, development, and zoning reform as part of Arlington County's missing middle housing information series.

While most students were taking a break from their studies this summer, the student managers of Patriot Real Estate Funds raised $1.25 million for the second student-managed real estate investment fund at George Mason University. The Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship (CREE) at the School of Business established the initial student-managed real estate investment fund in 2018 to provide students of the Masters in Real Estate Development (MRED) program  a unique experiential learning opportunity. With real money raised from outside investors, this is one of only a few similar programs offered at universities across the country, and allows students the chance to study, recommend, and manage investments in commercial real estate properties in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area.

“As women made gains in higher education, access to full-time employment, higher pay, and higher income positions—as well as with more households now identifying as led by women—this homeownership gap has shrunk over the last few decades,” says Eric Maribojoc, executive director of the Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship, in an article on the home ownership gender gap in The Balance.

​​​​​​​The Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship in the School of Business at George Mason University established the Opportunity Scholarship to support diversity and inclusion in the real estate industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is awarded each fall to one or more incoming first-year master’s in real estate development student(s) from groups underrepresented in the real estate industry and/or those contributing to diversity and inclusion in the real estate industry and George Mason University.

Eric Maribojoc, executive director of the Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship, was interviewed by GlobeSt.com on upcoming CRE pricing trends.

Eric Maribojoc, executive director of the Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship, discusses the pros of real estate degrees in an interview with GlobeSt.com.