The Ivanhoé Cambridge Real Estate Chair at ESG UQAM celebrates its 25th anniversary and launches a program of activities under the theme “Think Outside the Box in Real Estate”

June 16, 2021 – The Ivanhoé Cambridge Real Estate Chair at the Université du Québec à Montréal School of Management (ESG UQAM) is celebrating 25 years of developing knowledge, skills and training in real estate. The anniversary provides an opportunity to review the major upheavals and transformations that have occurred in the industry over the years, as well as to take stock both of the advancement of knowledge and of trends emerging for the years to come. It is also a chance to share that knowledge to drive a better understanding of issues and challenges in this thriving, changing industry.

A year-long series of activities to mark 25 years 
To mark its 25th anniversary, the Chair has organized a series of activities that will last throughout 2021–2022, including:

• A series of articles, in collaboration with JBC Média, for the magazines Immobilier commercial and Maintenance immobilière, to be collated into a special edition.
• A QUB Radio program for the podcast (Dé)construire, organized in collaboration with the office of the Vice Dean of Research, ESG UQAM, delving into the business world. 
• A special issue of the Journal of General Management with the theme “Real Estate Management and Strategies: The Next Decade.” A prize will be awarded for the best article submitted for the issue. 
• A collective publication featuring articles by experts from academia as well as the business community, entitled Penser l’immobilier autrement ! (“Think Outside the Box in Real Estate”). 
• Multiple articles in business and academic publications seeking to better explain the major transformations in the real estate sector and innovations under way.
• A series of public talks and co-creation workshops. 
• A gala event in the spring of 2022 to wrap up the year-long celebrations.

An audacious, innovative partnership between academia and business
This anniversary period is also an opportunity to underscore the audacious and innovative 25-year partnership with Ivanhoé Cambridge: a remarkable university-business alliance that combines the respective strengths of the research and business communities and that has stood out over the years through the substantial benefits it has generated within the community as well as its contributions to the evolution of the real estate ecosystem.

Christian Agbobli, Vice Rector of Research, Creation and Dissemination at UQAM, recalls the importance of ESG UQAM’s leadership in research and action in the field of real estate over the past quarter-century: “In occupying this winning position, UQAM relies on the state-of-the-art expertise of its faculty and the support of partners who seek to contribute to the advancement and sharing of knowledge. Ivanhoé Cambridge’s contribution has been and continues to be invaluable, both in terms of training the next generation of high-level researchers in one of UQAM’s fields of excellence and in terms of the concrete impacts of the Chair’s research on this pivotal sector of the economy.”

In the words of Nathalie Palladitcheff, President and CEO of Ivanhoé Cambridge: “Innovation and research are fundamental pillars for the development of connected living spaces for current and future users. It is therefore fundamental for us to support the overall research ecosystem and help foster its practical and sustainable applications. After 25 years of fruitful partnership and in view of today’s accelerating pace of change, it is all the more necessary to continue capitalizing on research to shape the real estate industry of tomorrow.”

Komlan Sedzro, Dean of ESG UQAM, adds: “We are proud of the partnership we have forged with Ivanhoé Cambridge because our vision of research is that it must be embedded as a core concern of the business community.”

And Andrée De Serres, Holder of the Ivanhoé Cambridge Real Estate Chair at ESG UQAM, notes: “This major partnership speaks to the daring and the innovative mindset of Ivanhoé Cambridge and UQAM. Today we can look back to 1995 and say that the idea of developing a research and innovation chair dedicated to advancing knowledge in the field of property management and investment was, and remains, an audacious project born of a unique partnership between business and academia.”

Real estate, a thriving field of research
Spurred on by radical changes, the real estate industry is thriving and a source of numerous innovations. The science of real estate, its multiple dimensions and the issues surrounding it are often misunderstood, but nonetheless central to addressing the great challenges facing society. It has thus become imperative that real estate be sustainable, smart, firmly rooted in its surroundings—organic, even—and in harmony with its natural environment. Henceforth, the health, safety and well-being of residents and users are also central to its objectives.

The Ivanhoé Cambridge Real Estate Chair at ESG UQAM, constantly alert to new trends, is a one-of-a-kind venue for thinking, discussion and exchange among academics and professionals, aimed at expediting the sharing, transfer and application of innovations in property management and investment.

The Chair is dedicated to development of new knowledge, skills and training in real estate and has, over the years, built a major local and international network of researchers, spanning North America, Europe and Asia. The ongoing partnership between ESG UQAM and Ivanhoé Cambridge is helping to make Montreal a world-renowned hub of research and knowledge.

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and the fight against climate change, there is an urgent need to consider the science of real estate as a bona fide human discipline with practical applications. The time has come to “Think Outside the Box in Real Estate,” and that is the direction in which the Chair intends to pursue its research, continuing to nurture an ecosystem-based vision that encompasses the building, its district, its natural surroundings and, most important, the people living there.

About the Ivanhoé Cambridge Real Estate Chair at ESG UQAM
The Ivanhoé Cambridge Real Estate Chair at ESG UQAM is a university research-innovation chair dedicated to the development of new knowledge, skills and training in real estate. For the past 25 years, it has been a privileged venue for collaboration among researchers, students, faculty and experts from both the academic and professional communities, aimed at pooling the wealth and breadth of their experience toward thinking outside the box in real estate and stimulating innovation in the real estate ecosystem. To learn more: www.ivanhoecambridge.uqam.ca.

About Ivanhoé Cambridge
Ivanhoé Cambridge develops and invests in high-quality real estate properties, projects and companies that are shaping the urban fabric in dynamic cities around the world. It does so responsibly, with a view to generate long-term performance. Ivanhoé Cambridge is committed to creating living spaces that foster the well-being of people and communities, while reducing its environmental footprint.
Ivanhoé Cambridge invests internationally alongside strategic partners and major real estate funds that are leaders in their markets. Through subsidiaries and partnerships, the Company holds interests in more than 1,100 buildings, primarily in the industrial and logistics, office, residential and retail sectors. Ivanhoé Cambridge held C$60.4 billion in real estate assets as December 31, 2020 and is a real estate subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (cdpq.com), one of Canada’s leading institutional fund managers. For more information: ivanhoecambridge.com

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Sources

Julie Meunier
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Media Relations and Special Events Division
Communications Department, UQAM
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meunier.julie@uqam.ca

Ivanhoé Cambridge
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