you know the concept behind focal point
came out of the the little village and
North Lawndale community individuals
looking to provide a family concept in a
neighborhood that was underserved so the
individuals in in conjunction with some
of my employees we reached out to the
community and designed a community
campus that matched the needs of the
community so st. Anthony is actually a
tenant the 22 acre community campus will
hold in addition to about 260,000 square
feet of retail soccer field schools
daycare center will have 150 bed
community hospital the idea behind focal
point is actually to create this
community campus that generates revenue
the revenue then instead of going back
to the developer goes back into the
community so something unique that
brings forward the needs of the
community and in this particular
community cuz all communities are
different you know brings education
wellness recreation retail you typically
don't see that level of public-private
partnerships together so when you have
something that's unique and different
you will have people that will come out
and challenge it fortunately for us
between Washington the state and the
support of Rahm Emanuel the mayor of
Chicago we've been able to get through a
lot of hurdles I will tell you this has
probably been one of the most
frustrating ventures that I've ever
undertaken in my career and again a lot
of it because of the innovation and some
of the uniqueness of pulling together
all these communities but we are moving
forward thanks to the support of people
like you know Mayor Rahm Emanuel and
Senator Durbin and congressman Danny
Davis and
senator sander vol and a number of other
supported elected officials so but you
know again there's always a new
challenge every day and the difference
is the fact that I've got a team of
people along with myself that you know
are willing to do whatever it takes to
open this campus up
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