Suzanne Charles teaches CRP 6580 Residential and Commercial Development, a Baker Program in Real Estate required course. The project-based course offers an in-depth exploration of the real estate development process, and students work in teams — and with other stakeholders — to prepare development proposals for an actual site.

In previous offerings of the course, students prepared a proposal for a local site on behalf of the site owner. In fall 2019 students will not work for the benefit of the site owner, but instead will be required to consider the broader interests of the community as they create their redevelopment proposals for the Ithaca Mall in Lansing. This will involve working with two local non-profit groups — Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services (INHS) and the Ithaca Child Development Council (ICDC) — and it will also involve the broader elicitation and consideration of community viewpoints about the future of the Ithaca Mall. An important objective of the course is for BPRE students to more fully appreciate the interests of stakeholders with whom they may not regularly engage in a real estate redevelopment project.