UConn takes top prize in housing competition
Students from the University of Connecticut took first place in a national competition aimed at solving housing challenges.
Aidan Jubb, Peter “Sam” Cimini, Krishna Benzy and Grayson Glasgow of UConn Real Estate beat out 67 other teams for the $5,000 cash prize in the eighth annual Boston College Joseph E. Corcoran Center for Real Estate and Urban Action’s Future of Housing Case Competition.
Competitors were asked to come up with proposals for an affordable housing project in Columbus, Ohio. The winning team devised a multitiered financing strategy to provide income for very-low-income renters. They presented "a detailed proposal for a 42-unit residential building, with a commercial kitchen and computer center, that would allow residents to participate in workforce development and cooking and nutritional courses," UConn Today reported.
The contest gave out prizes to teams in second, third and fourth places of $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000, respectively.
NAR remembers broker killed in plane crash
The National Association of Realtors is mourning the loss of Cristina Grossu Biffle, a real estate broker and founder of North Carolina-based Leisurely Real Estate, who died in a plane crash north of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Dec. 18.
“This is a tragic loss for the Realtor community," NAR President Kevin Brown said in a statement. "In her endless pursuit of service to others, Cristina represented the best of what we are all about as Realtors. NAR extends our deepest sympathies to the entire Grossu and Biffle families.”
The broker was aboard a Cessna C550 business jet when it attempted an emergency landing shortly after takeoff from Statesville Regional Airport outside Charlotte. The plane was engulfed in flames upon impact, according to reports, killing all seven passengers, including Grossu Biffle and her husband, the couple’s 5-year-old son, a 14-year-old daughter from Biffle’s previous marriage, and three other passengers.
Grossu Biffle, 35, had been named one of the National Association of Realtors' 30 Under 30 in 2019. She was married to Greg Biffle, who won championships in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, as well as numerous wins and accolades in the NASCAR Cup Series, according to NASCAR.com.
In 2024, she was recognized for getting aid to isolated North Carolina mountain communities affected by Hurricane Helene. "Using the family’s private helicopter, she and her husband delivered food, water and satellite internet equipment to remote mountain communities that had been cut off by widespread flooding and power outages," NAR reported. "They worked tirelessly to coordinate aid to stranded families, and their efforts were widely hailed as heroic."
Trump halts coastal wind farm projects
The Trump administration on Monday halted five wind farm projects off the East Coast, citing national security concerns.
The government paused federal leases for projects, including Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind. The Dominion Energy initiative, described as the nation’s largest wind-energy project in development, was slated to include 176 turbines. A Dominion statement said the project, set for completion in 2026, was necessary for national security and to meet escalating energy needs created by factors including Northern Virginia’s growing hub of data centers.
Those centers are increasingly being developed nationwide to support growing use of artificial intelligence and related technologies, and Northern Virginia has among the largest concentrations in planning or construction. Dominion said stopping the coastal Virginia project “will threaten grid reliability for some of the nation’s important war fighting, AI and civilian assets,” while driving up energy costs.
The government also paused leases on four other wind farm projects off the coasts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York’s Long Island. A U.S. Interior Department statement said the government found that turbine blades and “highly reflective towers” create risks of radar interference.