She's excited, but a little nervous. Dressed in conservative clothes, maybe a skirt, Christine Drehobl will give a presentation today similar to the one local developer Marc Moen gave to Iowa City officials less than a handful of years ago.

The UI senior-to-be, along with 10 of her classmates, will fictitiously act on behalf of Moen Group, 105 E. College St. They will propose to the actual Moen Group employees, who will act as Iowa City officials, why they should accept a proposal to build the 14-story Plaza Towers.

The two towers, now under construction at Linn and College streets, will provide 56 hotel suites, a conference center and commercial space. It also will include a coffeehouse, fresh food market and deli, salon and health club.

And Drehobl, 21, hopes to do a good job today.

"I feel like we owe it back to (Moen) now," she said, referring to his speaking and presentation skills.

Moen spoke to the class three weeks ago, talking about communication, branding and how a person becomes known and trusted in the marketplace. He charged them with a "real life" assignment in which they would apply skills they learn in class on a business venture. Their task: to convince Moen why they should be able to proceed with a $27 million plan to construct Plaza Towers.

In 2000, Moen started steps toward the same task.

"It's fun now to be able to go back and share some of the stuff I've learned in the last 20 years," said Moen, who graduated from UI's law school in 1979.

Adam Roth, a graduate instructor who teaches the 8-week long business and professional communication summer course, said the class formed groups, wrote business proposals and created power-point presentations for the project.

"It's more to have exposure to a prominent member of the community," Roth said, "where they can actually learn from a real entrepreneur rather read it in a textbook."

Moen was named 2003 Press-Citizen Person of the Year. He owns or shares ownership of about 100 downtown apartments and leases space to about 35 commercial tenants.

Drehobl's role, in the class composed of mainly sophomores and juniors, is to talk about the people who will rent space in the towers. She refers to the clientele as looking for a "big city feel" in a smaller-sized city.

Christopher Nelms' duty is to talk about the long-term benefits of a project such as the Plaza Towers, and not projects that would make a quick profit.

"We're giving the same proposal you think he should've done to Iowa City (officials)," said Nelms, 21, a May UI graduate who will wear a shirt and tie today.

Construction of the towers, which began in December 2003, is slated for a December 2005 completion date.