White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate: A Letter from Center Leadership

The Rotunda on the Lawn at UVA

Dear Alumni, Colleagues, and Friends of the Center,

Spring has arrived on Grounds, and judging by the activity on the Lawn, students are more than ready for it. With graduation less than a month away, some of our students will be moving on from Charlottesville. We look forward to welcoming them back to our 2025 UVA Real Estate Conference this fall as our newest class of alumni.

Speaking of our signature Conference, we were delighted to gather with a large contingent of alumni and friends of the Center at our 2024 Real Estate Conference back in November. The theme was “Reimagining Commercial Real Estate: Technology, Design, and Markets”. The nearly 500 people in attendance heard from 45 different speakers and panelists, with 35 of those being distinguished alumni, along with our terrific faculty and noted industry experts. We were particularly pleased to have 200 students attend the conference to network and attend breakout sessions focused on careers. Our 2025 UVA Real Estate Conference promises to be equally informative and inspiring with Chris Nassetta (McIntire ’84) and Ben Weprin confirmed to give our keynote fireside chat! Please save the date for a return to Charlottesville on Friday, November 14 – arrive on Thursday afternoon and kick-off your conference experience with our welcome reception at the Forum Hotel. Discounted hotel rooms at the Forum are already available for our group.

The White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate continues to engage actively with UVA students and alumni each semester through real estate treks and speaker engagements. In February, we led a group of 30 students to Richmond to meet with JLL and tour two large development projects (including the new home of Virginia Public Media). The Sanderford Speaker Series continues to expose our students to great companies (and great alumni), including case studies by ASB Investments and MRP Industrial, and concluded this semester with a talk on social impact real estate by Turning Point. In April, the Center hosted over 75 UVA real estate alumni at the Thompson Hotel in Dallas as part of the PREA Conference. We’re hoping to see many more at another reception we’re co-hosting with Rabbet at the Spring ULI Conference in Denver on May 14.

Warm regards,

Keven Lindemann
Executive Director
White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate