Jones Lang LaSalle
Just listed: A 4-year degree in real estate
Monmouth U. calls it the hot new major
Thursday, June 01, 2006
BY KELLY HEYBOER
Star-Ledger Staff
Julius Kislak learned the real estate business the old-fashioned way: He sold his father's house in Hoboken in 1906, then sold a few more and kept selling until he built one of the largest real estate businesses in the state.
But Kislak, who trained a generation of employees, would have appreciated the idea of a four-year college major devoted solely to real estate, his son Jay said.
"He was also a teacher. He was a trainer of men," said the younger Kislak, chairman of the board of the family's company, J.I. Kislak. "This is the kind of thing he would have loved."
The Kislak family will mark the 100th anniversary of the company's founding by donating $2 million to Monmouth University to help start New Jersey's first undergraduate major in real estate. The gift, due to be announced today on the West Long Branch campus, will be the second-largest in the private school's history.
With the property market booming, the university is banking that real estate will be the next hot college major. The idea is to take what has been regarded as a trade and make it a legitimate scholarly pursuit.
"The roof over your head, the land under your bed ... it's all related to real estate. Over half the wealth in the country is real estate. And, I think, in New Jersey, that's abundantly clear," said Donald Moliver, director of Monmouth University's Real Estate Institute. The institute opened in 1992.
Though real estate majors are still rare, the number of colleges and universities offering degrees in the field has doubled to about 65 over the last decade. DePaul University in Chicago, Portland State University in Oregon and Florida International University in Miami have all started undergraduate majors in recent years.
Monmouth University plans to start its major in the fall of 2007. Students will take classes on real estate law, eminent domain, finance, development, construction, affordable housing and other topics.
Today's teenagers have grown up in the era of McMansions, house flipping, Donald Trump and round-the-clock home-renovation shows on cable's HGTV. So school officials hope majoring in real estate will seem like an exciting career choice.
"It's such a unique major in this area, we believe quite frankly it is going to be, 'Build it and they will come,'" Moliver said.
The school has been offering graduate courses and continuing-education courses for real estate professionals for years. Campus officials are unsure how many budding real estate moguls will be attracted to the new undergraduate degree program.
Monmouth University, which currently charges $22,268 a year in tuition, plans to advertise the new major and offer scholarships to interested students.
In the future, the undergraduate degree may include a course to help graduates get their real estate licenses. But the major is not designed to train future Realtors. Graduates probably will end up as developers, lawyers or executives in corporations in the real estate field, school officials said.
The idea appealed to the Kislaks, who have been in the real estate business for four generations. Last year, the family began looking for a way to mark the 100th anniversary of the year Julius Kislak started the business in Hoboken.
The small house-selling business grew fast and eventually included commercial properties, multifamily units, a mortgage company and other divisions.
J.I. Kislak Inc., based in Miami Lakes, Fla., is the parent company. But it still has Jersey ties: The Kislak Company, the family-run division specializing in multifamily and retail sales, is based in Woodbridge.
Two members of the Kislak family and a member of the family's charitable foundation toured Monmouth University last fall and began discussing a donation. The Kislaks considered donating money to Rutgers, the state's largest university, but were attracted to Monmouth's well-established Real Estate Institute, family members said.
Monmouth University President Paul Gaffney flew to Florida in March to meet Jay Kislak and present a business plan for the new major. Gaffney, a retired Navy vice admiral, and Kislak, a World War II naval aviator, hit it off.
The university was eager to expand its offerings in real estate, partly because the field intersects with many other areas, including the university's Urban Coast Institute, the president said.
"We think it's the hot area," Gaffney said. "This is an area of distinction for us."
Kislak said his father, who died in 1979, was a Ukrainian immigrant who dropped out of high school and would have loved to see his name on the side of a university real estate institute. One hundred years ago, the elder Kislak was walking the streets of Hoboken, knocking on doors, trying to find houses to sell.
"This is in his memory, in his honor," his son said.
Kelly Heyboer covers higher education. She may be reached at kheyboer@starledger.com or (973) 392-5929.
© 2006 The Star Ledger
© 2006 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
Just listed: A 4-year degree in real estate
Monmouth U. calls it the hot new major
Thursday, June 01, 2006
BY KELLY HEYBOER
Star-Ledger Staff
Julius Kislak learned the real estate business the old-fashioned way: He sold his father's house in Hoboken in 1906, then sold a few more and kept selling until he built one of the largest real estate businesses in the state.
But Kislak, who trained a generation of employees, would have appreciated the idea of a four-year college major devoted solely to real estate, his son Jay said.
"He was also a teacher. He was a trainer of men," said the younger Kislak, chairman of the board of the family's company, J.I. Kislak. "This is the kind of thing he would have loved."
The Kislak family will mark the 100th anniversary of the company's founding by donating $2 million to Monmouth University to help start New Jersey's first undergraduate major in real estate. The gift, due to be announced today on the West Long Branch campus, will be the second-largest in the private school's history.
With the property market booming, the university is banking that real estate will be the next hot college major. The idea is to take what has been regarded as a trade and make it a legitimate scholarly pursuit.
"The roof over your head, the land under your bed ... it's all related to real estate. Over half the wealth in the country is real estate. And, I think, in New Jersey, that's abundantly clear," said Donald Moliver, director of Monmouth University's Real Estate Institute. The institute opened in 1992.
Though real estate majors are still rare, the number of colleges and universities offering degrees in the field has doubled to about 65 over the last decade. DePaul University in Chicago, Portland State University in Oregon and Florida International University in Miami have all started undergraduate majors in recent years.
Monmouth University plans to start its major in the fall of 2007. Students will take classes on real estate law, eminent domain, finance, development, construction, affordable housing and other topics.
Today's teenagers have grown up in the era of McMansions, house flipping, Donald Trump and round-the-clock home-renovation shows on cable's HGTV. So school officials hope majoring in real estate will seem like an exciting career choice.
"It's such a unique major in this area, we believe quite frankly it is going to be, 'Build it and they will come,'" Moliver said.
The school has been offering graduate courses and continuing-education courses for real estate professionals for years. Campus officials are unsure how many budding real estate moguls will be attracted to the new undergraduate degree program.
Monmouth University, which currently charges $22,268 a year in tuition, plans to advertise the new major and offer scholarships to interested students.
In the future, the undergraduate degree may include a course to help graduates get their real estate licenses. But the major is not designed to train future Realtors. Graduates probably will end up as developers, lawyers or executives in corporations in the real estate field, school officials said.
The idea appealed to the Kislaks, who have been in the real estate business for four generations. Last year, the family began looking for a way to mark the 100th anniversary of the year Julius Kislak started the business in Hoboken.
The small house-selling business grew fast and eventually included commercial properties, multifamily units, a mortgage company and other divisions.
J.I. Kislak Inc., based in Miami Lakes, Fla., is the parent company. But it still has Jersey ties: The Kislak Company, the family-run division specializing in multifamily and retail sales, is based in Woodbridge.
Two members of the Kislak family and a member of the family's charitable foundation toured Monmouth University last fall and began discussing a donation. The Kislaks considered donating money to Rutgers, the state's largest university, but were attracted to Monmouth's well-established Real Estate Institute, family members said.
Monmouth University President Paul Gaffney flew to Florida in March to meet Jay Kislak and present a business plan for the new major. Gaffney, a retired Navy vice admiral, and Kislak, a World War II naval aviator, hit it off.
The university was eager to expand its offerings in real estate, partly because the field intersects with many other areas, including the university's Urban Coast Institute, the president said.
"We think it's the hot area," Gaffney said. "This is an area of distinction for us."
Kislak said his father, who died in 1979, was a Ukrainian immigrant who dropped out of high school and would have loved to see his name on the side of a university real estate institute. One hundred years ago, the elder Kislak was walking the streets of Hoboken, knocking on doors, trying to find houses to sell.
"This is in his memory, in his honor," his son said.
Kelly Heyboer covers higher education. She may be reached at kheyboer@starledger.com or (973) 392-5929.
© 2006 The Star Ledger
© 2006 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 12:36 PM
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