University President John J. DeGioia announced last Thursday night that the McDonough School of Business will launch the Steers Center for Global Real Estate, a new initiative dedicated to real estate education, after receiving a $10 million donation from Robert H. Steers (MSB ’75) and his wife Lauren Steers.

The center will provide both undergraduate and graduate students with a curriculum covering multiple aspects of the real estate business, opportunities for individualized mentorship with industry leaders, work experience with global companies and hands-on projects through the Real Estate Clinic and Real Estate Laboratory, two of its programs.

In 2012, Steers donated $5 million to the MSB to develop the Real Estate Finance Initiative. The new center will be headed by current REFI Director and professor of real estate Matthew Cypher.

According to MSB Dean David A. Thomas, the center offers students practical experience with the global real estate industry.

“The Steers Center for Global Real Estate will provide our students an opportunity to engage the world of real estate through a very practical approach,” Thomas said. “The center will elevate the school toward becoming the premier destination for global business education.”

Steers said that he hopes the center will contribute to the MSB’s continued growth and innovation.

“It was important to me to see Georgetown McDonough create a formal real estate center with the financing to be permanent and to think and plan strategically,” Steers said. “To be a preeminent school and center, we need to constantly strive to innovate and come up with additional strategies that prospective students and employers look at and say, ‘Wow, that’s really something special.’”

Cypher said that the future of the university is linked to the trajectory of the MSB.

“We have married the academic excellence of the Georgetown University classroom with the applied experiences afforded by our location in the global Washington, D.C. real estate community,” Cypher said. “No other program will be able to match our strengths in developing students to become leaders in the field of real estate.”

Laura Sanint (GRD ’16) said the center will have a significant positive impact on the education MSB students receive.

“Not only will it help strengthen the connections between the alumni body and the student body, it will also bring experiential learning and a more globalized experience,” Sanint said.