Geoffrey K. Turnbull has been named the inaugural professor and Jim Heistand-NAIOP Eminent Scholar Chair in the Dr. P. Phillips School of Real Estate and the Department of Finance in the College of Business Administration.
In this role, he will teach and continue his current research on real property markets, focusing on property rights issues in developed and developing countries, regulation effects on urban land use, and housing and real estate brokerage.
Turnbull joins UCF from Georgia State University where he served as a professor of economics since 2001. Prior to that, he was the C.J. Brown Distinguished Professor of Real Estate at Louisiana State University.
Turnbull has published extensively in scholarly journals on a range of topics in real estate economics. He is a fellow of the Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Urban Economics, Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and Journal of Housing Economics. Additionally, he advises local governments and firms and organizations in the business services, energy, and hospitality industries.
“I look forward to being a part of the UCF College of Business Administration and the opportunity to help develop the Dr. P. Phillips School of Real Estate as a top tier center of real estate research and education in the U.S.,” he said.
The Jim Heistand – NAIOP Chair was made possible through the generosity of James R. Heistand, Chairman and CEO of Eola Capital, and NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.
UCF graduate and CBA Hall of Fame member Nan B. McCormick, ’83, past chair of NAIOP, played an integral role in securing industry investment in the UCF real estate program. “We are very excited that Geoffrey Turnbull has joined UCF. He has an outstanding research record and will be a great addition to the real estate program,” she said.
The Heistand and NAIOP gift, combined with a matching grant from the State of Florida, creates an endowed fund of more than $1,000,000 to provide long term support for this important academic position.
UCF offers an undergraduate as well as a professional master of real estate degree. The Dr. P. Phillips School of Real Estate was created in 2005 with a generous donation from Dr. Phillips Inc.