CHARLOTTE, N.C.  - Nov. 18, 2008 -  The UNC Charlotte Center for Real Estate celebrated the end of its fund raising campaign “Developing Talent, Building the Future” at the Duke Mansion Monday night. Campaign co-chairs Fred Klein, senior managing partner at Childress Klein Properties, and Todd Mansfield, chairman and CEO of Crosland LLC, announced that the campaign raised $4.4 million, surpassing its $4 million goal by 10 percent.

The campaign included funds for increasing scholarships and fellowship opportunities for students; expanding the real estate curriculum in the Belk College of Business; and creating programs for industry professionals.

Lead donors to the campaign who contributed at the $500,000 level were American Asset Corporation, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Bissell, Childress Klein Properties, Crosland LLC and the Wachovia Foundation. Other significant gifts included $250,000 from Batson-Cook Company and $100,000 each from Shelco, Inc., K&L Gates and Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP. A full list of donors is available at www.belkcollege.uncc.edu/real_estate/campaigndonors.html.

“The campaign’s success is a true credit to the strong real estate program that UNC Charlotte has built over the last decade,” Klein said. “The real estate community’s broad support of the campaign shows a deep appreciation for the value of both the Center for Real Estate and UNC Charlotte to the success of our region”

UNC Charlotte’s ties to the real estate community are longstanding. Earlier this decade, the university raised $2 million to establish the Center for Real Estate. In the 1990s, real estate leaders joined together to endow a distinguished professorship in real estate in the Belk College of Business. Steve Ott, who joined the faculty of the Belk College of Business in 1999, is the John Crosland Sr. Distinguished Professor of Real Estate and director of the Center for Real Estate.

The university offers a concentration in real estate at the MBA level as well as a post-graduate certificate program. The MBA real estate concentration currently enrolls 30 students and has graduated more than 60. Faculty and graduate students also conduct research on issues related to real estate, addressing topics ranging from tax increment financing to public-private partnerships in school construction to the impact of public transit on development.

“The Belk College of Business is committed to serving the citizens of North Carolina through excellence in teaching, research and service,” said Joseph B. Mazzola, dean of the Belk College. “Through the dedicated work of Steve Ott and his colleagues, and with the support of an outstanding advisory board, the Center for Real Estate has already distinguished itself in carrying out this mission. With the additional resources made available through this successful campaign, the Center has the opportunity to become a preeminent scholarly resource for the real estate industry.”