Sarasota native wins ICSC competition

Sarasota native and Wharton School of Business freshman Katherine G. Salvatori in May led a team that won an International Council of Shopping Centers' competition, the retail group says.

Salvatori, a 2016 Pine View graduate, was one of three University of Pennsylvania/Wharton students who took home top honors in the second-annual ICSC-Cornell International Retail Real Estate Case Study Competition.

The Wharton team topped Ivy League schools such as Cornell, as well as teams from universities from Canada and as far away as Australia.

As part of the competition, Acadia Realty Trust had the students formulate recommendations for The Forum at Anne Arundel County, a retail center just outside Baltimore.

Salvatori's team recommended buying the center for $17.5 million, employing an “aggressive leasing strategy” together with a mortgage refinancing, and a disposition after a five-year hold period.

For their efforts, the students split $10,000.

Salvatori, whose parents both work in the real estate business, says she's drawn to potential “changeable impact” that commercial properties have.

And while she's planned to become a real estate developer after graduating from Wharton, she says a summer internship with Colliers International in New York City has piqued her interest in commercial brokerage, as well.