Representatives and members of the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC) traveled to New York in September for a commercial mission, during which time they visited Columbia University and met with faculty, students and alumni to get an inside look at the US residential income market.
The on-campus visit was organized by CChC in conjunction with the Santiago Center and Chilean students at the Columbia Business School (CBS). The CChC group of 29 was received by three Chilean MBA students: José Ignacio Amenabar, José Miguel Benavides and Diego Echeverría, who provided the group with a campus tour of the library, the law school, and other facilities.
Following that, the group walked to CBS’s new Manhattanville campus for a talk with CBS Real Estate professor Brian Lancaster on the US residential markets, hosted by the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at CBS. “The presentation was very high level and of great interest to the CChC members, who asked a number of questions about the subject matter,” according to Agustín Julio, foreign affairs coordinator at CChC.
The group ended the day at The Forum at Columbia, with a talk with representatives of MetaProp, one of the world’s leading venture capital firms focused on the PropTech industry, founded by Columbia alumnus Zach Aarons (CBS’13) that has invested in over 150 technology companies across the real estate value chain.
“The visit and talks at Columbia were one of the highlights of the commercial mission for many of our associates,” Julio says. “The academic approach, coming from a university of prestige and excellence such as Columbia, was highly relevant for our chamber and those participating on our commercial mission.” He particularly thanked Professor Lancaster and his team “for the impressive organization, reception and excellent talk.”
The CChC’s residential income commercial mission was focused on the topic of residential/multifamily income. Besides the meetings at Columbia, participants also got to know multifamily rental projects, visited architecture and urban planning offices with projects in the US and in other parts of the world; and held talks with law firms to understand the risks and challenges of residential rental from a legal perspective.
