Key members of the FSU real estate investment fund team include Master of Finance student Jacob Kelly, faculty advisor Mariya Letdin, MSF student Sierra Wicker and MBA student Will Myers. (Katie Xanders/School of Business)
Selected master's degree students at Florida State University's College of Business continue to enjoy the educational and professional benefits of a unique investment vehicle that provides real-world experience in real estate securities.
The FSU Real Estate Investment Fund (REIF) is one of the few funds of its kind and size, with approximately $2.35 million outstanding in real estate investment trusts (REITs) alone, and with a team of graduate students managing its holdings.
“There are very few student-run REIF funds of this size that we know of that focus exclusively on REIT securities,” said Will Myers, a fast-track full-time Master of Business Administration (MBA) student at the university. “I think the close-knit team we've built here, especially this semester, is very unique to FSU.”
Myers manages the fund alongside fellow master’s students Jacob Kelly and Sierra Wicker, as well as three other students enrolled in a graduate-level supervised independent study course. Kelly and Wicker are pursuing a Master of Science in Finance (MSF) with a specialization in real estate.
The core team of Myers, Kelly and Wicker have been managing and analyzing the fund since the first half of last year. Last semester, they established a process for monitoring and reporting the fund's performance and led the construction of a detailed website that provides information on holdings, sector breakdowns, core team, history and more.
Faculty advisor Mariya Reddin, the Madeline Duncan Rowland Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Department of Risk Management/Insurance, Real Estate and Law, praised the students’ efforts and contributions to REIF.
“I am inspired by their energy and creativity. Working with this group of students has been the most rewarding part of my teaching,” she said.
Analysis of REIF investments will also be provided by students from Advanced Real Estate Finance and Investment, an MBA and MSF course also available to outstanding undergraduates who wish to gain an advantage in graduate studies.
“This fund attracts students who are bright and eager to learn,” Reddin said, “and who are willing to work and come up with their own solutions.”
FSU REIF (pronounced “leaf”) was established in spring 2022 with a $320,000 donation from RKM Development Corporation President Bill Lloyd (B.S. Real Estate '86), RKM Chairman Richard Maloof (B.S. Real Estate '85) and other individual donors, as well as $2 million from the FSU Foundation.
The fund is similar to the University’s Student Investment Fund, which similarly begins with a generous initial investment from donors, works with faculty advisors and is overseen by a committee of industry experts. The REIF Investment Committee includes four University alumni: Lloyd, American Realty Advisors president Scott Darling (BS Finance ’78), University Alumni Hall of Fame member and Alexander Investments International CEO Kyle Riva (BS Management ’77), and Saltzman Real Estate Advisors president Tekla Saltzman (BS Accounting ’83).
“Their labor, like the students' labor, is a labor of love,” Reddin said of the committee members. “This is the third year they've attended four hours of Investment Committee meetings, and we are grateful for their time, support and guidance.”
Student teams will analyze REIF securities and present recommendations to Industry Committee members who will evaluate, question, and consider the team's analysis and decide whether to act on the recommendations and allocations.
“REIF gave us the opportunity to get hands-on experience of what fund management is like,” Myers said. “We're not dealing with pocket change. $2.3 million is a lot of money, so there are real risks and processes to follow.”
Myers, whose work history includes a tech investment banking internship at Truist Securities after earning his MBA, said it was his work at REIF that made him realize he wanted to do more fund management.
Students note that the fund blends real estate and finance interests, and the fund's website shows holdings across a range of real estate sectors, including multifamily, office, retail, industrial, gaming, warehousing and healthcare.
“The exposure to different asset classes and the level of responsibility you place on yourself is huge,” Kelly says. “Not only do you have a fiduciary responsibility to preserve capital, but you also have a responsibility to make sure you don't push too far on potential investment opportunities.”
Kelly has had multiple internships in the development sector, including multifamily and hospitality, and plans to pursue a career in real estate development.
“REIF allowed me to explore all real estate sectors, from multifamily, industrial and retail to niche areas like day centres and cell towers,” he says. “That breadth helped me find what I wanted to do long-term.”
Kelly and Myers said they spent up to 35 hours a week on building the fund's systems and operations components, in addition to their other classes, averaging about 20 hours a week. A typical student puts in five to 10 hours a week, they said.
“Those 20 hours don't feel like work,” Myers said. “That's what I love to do.”