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A real-estate competition will begin on Saturday that pits University of B.C. students against students from two U.S. universities to design a community around a Coquitlam transit hub.

It’s the first time the Pacific Northwest Real Estate Challenge will be held in Canada.

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The event matches teams from university real estate programs — in this case, UBC, the University of Washington and Portland State University — in a competition focusing on a high-profile development project in a major metropolitan area.

The challenge is hosted by TransLink and Commercial Real Estate of Metro Vancouver.

“This Real Estate Challenge offers a great opportunity for students to work on a real world, challenging case, while also having a stake in the community,” said Jarvis Rouillard, president of the Vancouver chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, NAOIP Vancouver.

The goal this year is to design a mixed-use, master-planned community around Coquitlam Central Station, which occupies about 5.5 hectares in the centre of the city and currently includes parking, a bus loop and stations for the Evergreen SkyTrain extension and West Coast Express.