One year after naming, UNC Charlotte Childress Klein Center for Real Estate raises $5.1 million

Friday, September 30, 2016

One year ago, the UNC Charlotte Childress Klein Center for Real Estate celebrated the naming of the center and a $2.5 million gift by real estate firm Childress Klein.

Today, the center reached another milestone. Over the past 12 months, almost 100 companies and individuals from the Charlotte business community have raised a total of more than $5.1 million in support of the center.

In September 2015, Childress Klein donated $2.5 million to the Childress Klein Center for Real Estate. The gift created a new endowed professorship, and significantly boosted master’s student professional training programs and faculty fellowships related to research on real estate and urban economics topics.

With the match from the State of North Carolina for the professorship, the total impact of the gift last year was $3.2 million.

Over the past year, the Childress Klein Center for Real Estate Board of Advisors reached out to the Charlotte business community. Almost 100 supporters responded with gifts totaling more than $2.6 million since that time, bringing the current fundraising campaign total to $5.1 million over the past year.

Since the founding of the center in 2005, the center’s endowment will reach $13 million in support of its programs and activities. The center provides regional and national research, a Master of Science in Real Estate program and outreach activities in partnership with the Charlotte business community.

The gift by Childress Klein is the largest single gift in the center’s history. Childress Klein has been a longtime supporter of UNC Charlotte, beginning in 1990 with the Childress Klein Scholarship for Merit, then again in 1999 with the Childress Klein Faculty Research Funds and later the Childress Klein Fellowship Fund, as well as gifts to the Chancellor's Fund.

UNC Charlotte Belk College of Business Dean Steven Ott, co-director of the center and the John Crosland Sr. Distinguished Chair in Real Estate and Development, said the gifts will benefit the Charlotte real estate and business community directly.

“The support we have received from the Charlotte business community to UNC Charlotte’s Childress Klein Center for Real Estate has been tremendous. The center is a partner to the community and the region. The gifts received over the past year are helping to position our region to be a leader in real estate scholarship, education and research. In turn, the center provides talent, programs and research that impact Charlotte’s real estate industry,” Ott said.

The Childress Klein Center for Real Estate at UNC Charlotte was established in 2005 to further the knowledge of real estate, public policy and urban economics in the professional community through its teaching, research and community outreach activities. The center administers the M.S. in Real Estate program, the MBA concentration and certificate programs in real estate finance and development, and manages programming and outreach to the Real Estate Alumni Association and Real Estate Advisory Board. For more information, visit realestate.uncc.edu.

Learn more about UNC Charlotte's comprehensive campaign at UNC Charlotte Exponential.

Photo caption: (left to right) Dean Steven Ott, Fred Klein, Chancellor Philip L. Dubois and Don Childress at the naming of the Childress Klein Center for Real Estate in September 2015 at UNC Charlotte Center City. (Photo/Wade Bruton)

Media Contact:
Kirsten Khire, Belk College of Business: 704-687-7601 | 704-885-4134 | kkhire@uncc.edu