Cornell University’s undergraduate team and Fordham University’s graduate teams won top honors in the eleventh annual Harold E. Eisenberg Foundation Real Estate Challenge. The challenge tasked students with creating a hypothetical master plan for a five-parcel site in Chicago’s South Side Woodlawn Community, adjacent to the future home of the Obama Presidential Center. The challenge’s final presentations took place on Saturday, April 10.Cornell and Fordham were among 11 teams from 10 universities from across the country to participate in the program. Each winning team was awarded $5,000 in scholarships, made possible by Wintrust Commercial Real Estate, toward their university’s real estate program.This year’s Challenge site, in a historically under-invested Chicago corridor, is a five-parcel assemblage totaling approximately 15.5-acres, or 675,000 square feet of land. The site currently consists of a single-story retail center, surface parking lots, a vacant, unimproved site, and a community recreation center with ample outdoor green space and play space (YMCA).Cornell’s proposal, Point 180, presented by their team named Big Red Capital, earned first place recognition in the undergraduate division. Point 180 seeks to appeal to Woodlawn’s community goals through the development of an investment in a 30,000 square foot arts center; The Pershing Hotel, a 140 room, 7-story boutique hotel concept to accommodate visitors of the Obama Presidential Center, a mixed-use retail/office development; a public food hall and market totaling 28,000 square feet; and a public parking garage to accommodate 30,000 square feet of available area. The total projected cost of Point 180 is $170,930,732 million.