1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,320
I remember going to a holiday party and you think about Philadelphia, I don't know if you all know

2
00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:12,160
Philly but you know we had Blacksteen there, Blacksteen's company tower and Vestance we had

3
00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:22,480
Ken's company, Drannoff was there, PMC, you know, like the Brandy Wine, the Top 5 or 6

4
00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:27,520
Bell peppers and one of the guys came up to me and said man isn't this great, I'm like well

5
00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:34,160
it's great, he's like we can control all of the city and it just again kind of scrapped me in the face

6
00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:39,040
because you know I said to Leslie, if somebody makes a comment, I think that they have no

7
00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:45,120
regards the fact that nobody looks like he is participating in this and so you just decided

8
00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:50,800
collectively we wanted to go and try it on our own and build our own business that had a different

9
00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:57,280
mindset about inclusion. We from the very beginning you know we wanted people and businesses

10
00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:05,120
of color to participate, this is back in 2008 and we also knew that we needed to work in

11
00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:09,920
neighborhoods that were being collected because we saw significant investment going in

12
00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:14,960
certain neighborhoods and zero investment going you know so we frankly went after the two

13
00:01:14,960 --> 00:01:21,840
most difficult aspirations when we started our company but we believe that that is the real gap

14
00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,040
that exists, that based on our experience is working with all of these large

15
00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:30,640
developers in Philadelphia so Leslie and I started, Leslie they were actually four of us when we started

16
00:01:32,960 --> 00:01:40,800
and Leslie and I were the only ones to actually quit our jobs though so you can imagine

17
00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:46,560
when we started talking about what our interest would be everybody wanted to split 25%

18
00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:52,640
to 25% to 75% right for people. We said but Leslie and I, those are quit our jobs

19
00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:57,840
but all this not working that was that work so we said well you don't really, we're not

20
00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:02,880
like letting it to leave our work I said well I did and that was the conversation

21
00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:07,280
I with new company I went all that and this is what you know I have a wide vision three kids

22
00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:15,520
and kids ready to one of them you know not far from a couple years away from going to college

23
00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:21,360
and so it was a huge risk to take and so Leslie and I decided that it was best if the two of us

24
00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:28,800
just go at a loan and we started really working on fundamentals in 2008 see I don't know if you

25
00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:33,280
remember but it was terrible time for what I'll feel for real estate development it's when the economy

26
00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:40,480
crashed and it's when really everything shut down we started the business into biob 2008

27
00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:47,920
and by October nothing had looked like you couldn't get anything done and so we spent the next few

28
00:02:47,920 --> 00:02:54,480
months talking to lenders you know we talked to PRF we talked with you name the bank they take us

29
00:02:54,480 --> 00:03:00,400
out to lunch you know really wonderful lunch we did that for about 18 months we just absolutely

30
00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:09,520
no traction it was always a no and so we we were certainly dissolution but what we did I think

31
00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:16,880
that was smart was that we started creating our own milestones of success so the one thing I remember

32
00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:23,200
from the pharmaceutical industry was value was always measured in pharmaceutical industry under

33
00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:30,000
ability to build a pipeline and and so the real estate industry is really not different people

34
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:36,080
look at you not based on project you have but the pipeline that you have and the projects you've done

35
00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:43,680
and so Leslie and I really focused on how do we build a pipeline with absolutely no money right

36
00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:53,360
which is you know a tall task but it's also it's also a requirement for companies of

37
00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:59,520
palli because we don't come from families well so we have to think about what is the way to do that

38
00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:06,000
one of the first things we did was we went to the school district before the health here they had a

39
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:10,160
number of properties that time that was for sale and I don't know if you know as an high school

40
00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:18,320
former as an high school on on we high havens seven the main high that property was for sale for

41
00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:27,040
I think $2.7 million it was a full-savvy black it is a turven medicine high school has an incredible

42
00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:32,080
history it used to be an all-wheel high school was around for over 100 years and it educated some

43
00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:40,080
of the police top male athletes elected officials can Fraser from Merk went to medicine high up

44
00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:46,080
he would have become a CEO of Merk you had some Olympians that were there Teddy Ben Pandigras went to

45
00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:54,080
medicine high so really some known people were there medicine I was also known because more people

46
00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:58,080
that went to medicine high diet and be at home in any other high school in the country

47
00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:07,680
so 64 high school graduate from medicine to Vietnam and died and so that was the history that the

48
00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:12,800
neighborhood remember so lesson I said well let's try and buy this property but we can have

49
00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:19,600
any money and so it was the asking price was two million two point seven million we said well it's a

50
00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:25,600
bad economy nobody's building anything let's just give them a price we think we can afford and so

51
00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:30,880
the school just did point and begin it off their books because it was a 500,000 square foot building

52
00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:36,560
where there was significant vandalism there's a lot of drugs going on in that building you know

53
00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:41,680
anytime you would in you have to go in the police escort I mean there was significant meth meth

54
00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:47,520
methadone's activity there was heroin activity I mean it was a drug aid because it's such a big

55
00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:54,800
empty building and so we offered them $600,000 for the public and they didn't know what we're going

56
00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:58,960
to do with it because it took up the whole city block where our plan was being a linear tear down

57
00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:05,680
built community shopping center but they accepted the offer and then lesson I got scared because

58
00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:11,760
we're like okay so they're asking two points seven million the offer six hundred they they

59
00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:31,600
$600 but we didn't have $600 so we started thinking lessons like you know what

60
00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:36,880
the asking for alone that's asking to help us out and so we we were back to the school

61
00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:41,280
district and I said what do you guys need we said well we don't have the 600,000 but we have an idea

62
00:06:41,280 --> 00:06:45,040
to think of work we believe this needs to be a grocery store it was a food desert

63
00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:49,360
when we're going to check this building down we're going to put a grocery store here

64
00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:55,280
and we just don't have all all the elements together to make it work they said well what

65
00:06:55,280 --> 00:07:04,000
do you have we said we can come up with $25,000 and so they said okay they accepted that as a

66
00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:10,080
down payment but they said they had to get it off their books so they took the 25,000

67
00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:16,320
sold us the property and then kept it on and then well they sold it to us but we had a

68
00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:21,120
least tax situation so we're not for their books but they didn't transfer ownership to us until

69
00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:36,960
we were able to get the whole deal done so for $25,000