She's WILD

Designing My Career with Vicky Lee, SVP of Development at FOCUS - On Her Transition from Architect to Developer

Episode Summary

This week's episode features Vicky Lee, Senior Vice President of Development at FOCUS. Tune in as she takes us through her dynamic career journey, discussing the challenges and triumphs of leading FOCUS's expansion in the Southeast. Vicky, a pivotal figure in organizational growth, has managed developments valued at over $1.1B, including the success of The Atworth at Mellody Farm. Beyond her boardroom role, Vicky contributes actively to the industry, holding key positions at ULI Chicago. With an MBA from Cornell University and a BA in Architecture from the University of Notre Dame, Vicky's multifaceted leadership insights are sure to inspire. Join us to learn from her experience in suburban placemaking, strategic development, and the unique intersection of architecture and business.

Episode Notes

This week’s episode features the incredible Vicky Lee, Senior Vice President of Development at FOCUS.

Tune in as Vicky takes us on a captivating journey through career and shares what it’s like to lead FOCUS's expansion into diverse markets across the Southeast region. Discover what inspired her transition from architecture to development and gain insights into the challenges and triumphs along the way.

At Focus, Vicky defines strategies for organizational growth, spearheads acquisitions, manages developments valued at over $1.1B. She played a pivotal role in the success of The Atworth at Mellody Farm in Vernon Hills, IL which helped position FOCUS as a suburban placemaking leader.

Vicky’s expertise isn't limited to the boardroom – she actively contributes to the industry as Vice Chair of ULI Public Private Partnership Council (Blue), Vice Chair of ULI Chicago Product Council (Green), and Advisory Board member for ULI Chicago. With an MBA from Cornell University's S.C. Johnson School of Management and a BA in Architecture from the University of Notre Dame, she is a multifaceted leader who graciously shares her leadership insights on the show.

Connect with Nancy:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/
Website: www.nancysurak.com

Connect with Vicky:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickyglee/
https://workwithfocus.com/
Vicky's Book Recommendation: In Praise of Difficult Women: Life Lessons From 29 Heroines Who Dared to Break the Rules via Amazon https://a.co/d/9zibGUm

She’s Wild Sound Production by: Luke Surak, Surak Productions: surakproductions@gmail.com

Episode Transcription

Nancy Surak 00:01
Hello, welcome to She's Wild, the podcast for women in land and development. I'm your host, Nancy Surak. For almost two decades, I have been a land broker on the west coast of Florida, immersed in some remarkable commercial real estate deals. She's Wild is all about professional women in the land development, and commercial real estate industries. We are dedicated to advancing their success. Please join me weekly as we explore some inspiring stories of women who are reshaping the communities that they live, work and play in, all across North America. Hello, welcome back to She's Wild, the podcast for women and land and development. Today's guest is Vicky Lee, the Senior Vice President of Development of Focus in Chicago, Vicky, Welcome to She's Wild. I always say how excited I am for every single guest. But I really, really am so thrilled to have you here today because you are the example of someone who I didn't know, before today. And that I reached out to completely blindly on LinkedIn and said, hey, I love your background, I think you would make an amazing guest on my show, will you come on and talk to me. So I'm super pumped to have you here today. And I would love for you to just take a minute to do a little bit better of an introduction than just your name and your firm. Tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you're working on at Focus.

Vicky Lee 01:32
Absolutely. First of all, thank you for having me. I'm glad you reached out to me, because I love what you're doing here and especially introducing women into the industry. So as you said, my name is Vicky Lee, I am Senior Vice President of Development here at Focus. I've been at Focus for a little over eight years now. And actually I was born and raised in Hawaii. So when people find out I moved to Chicago, they're in a bit of a shock. But I do like Chicago a lot. I love all four seasons. And actually I was first introduced to Chicago because I went to Notre Dame for undergraduate in architecture. And I did end up practicing for about five years in DC for a firm called Torti Gallas & Partners then went back to business school at Cornell and then came here right after graduation. So I mainly head up our Midwest mall redevelopment, and also lead our team to expanding our company into the southeast. So Tampa Bay region, Miami as well as Charlotte, Atlanta, Raleigh.

Nancy Surak 02:36
Awesome. So I'm always really interested in how folks have found the world of development or, or as I normally say, land and development as a career path. But in your case, you're already sort of studying something in the field, right architecture. Tell me what originally led you to choose architecture as a field? And then as a follow up to that, how did you go from architecture to development as a career path?

Vicky Lee 03:04
Yeah, absolutely. So I wanted to be an architect since 6, or as far as I can remember, it was just particularly driving by home the night where you're seeing how families interact in their homes. And so to that, and I've always been attracted to multifamily, or anything to do with housing, actually. And so that's what got me into architecture. And when I applied for schools, such as Notre Dame, I specifically looked for architecture program. And Notre Dame was great, because they had a year abroad in Rome. So I was like, sign me up, you know, I don't need any other any other sale promise. And then as I was practicing, unfortunately, I graduated right at the Great Recession in 2008. Luckily enough, I did have a job lined up, and I did retain my job for five years. But during that time, it made me realize that being an architecture doesn't give you a whole lot of control of the real estate world. And it made me wonder, is this really what I want to be in? And is this how I want to make an impact because being in development, you have a better chance of making a bigger impact than than just architecture and so decided to go back to school, explore that route, and also business schools being a a degree that can essentially launch you into different professional growth paths. I thought, you know, what a real estate isn't what I want to do at all. That'd be a chance to explore other things, but it ended up being what I wanted to do. And so I stuck with it.

Nancy Surak 04:32
Awesome. So when you finished your master's degree, did is that when you moved from the DC area back to Chicago, or

Vicky Lee 04:40
Yeah, actually, the degree was in New York.

Nancy Surak 04:44
Okay. Yeah. So you went from DC to New York and then back to Chicago? Yep. So how does a girl from Hawaii end up in like the three largest metropolitan area you I mean, some of the largest ones like how did you go from growing up on an island to being a big city.

Vicky Lee 05:02
So I always felt like I didn't, I wouldn't have enjoyed a professional growth within Hawaii itself just because it's so small and so limited. So I've always imagined myself elsewhere. New York was at the top of mind at first, because that's what you see on TV, right, growing up in big city and everything. But then as I grew up, I realized I craved more of the Midwestern lifestyle in terms of this is still a great big city, but everyone is super friendly and engaging.

Nancy Surak 05:32
Yeah, Chicago is a great city can be really cold, but it's a great city. And there's a lot of culture and fun things and to do there and to visit, and it's good people, you know, like everybody I know from the Chicago area or that have moved friends of mine have moved up there. They just love it. So I know it's good people out there.

Vicky Lee 05:52
Yeah. And I'm a cold.

Nancy Surak 05:54
You love the cold? Okay, but that? Well, I mean, obviously, if you went to DC than New York and Chicago, you there must be a part of you that loves that. Right? But that is certainly not what you grew up with.

Vicky Lee 06:04
Right?

Nancy Surak 06:06
So did you get back to Hawaii very much.

Vicky Lee 06:08
I do. My parents still live there. And so I try to go once a year or so. But tickets are pretty expensive. So I do limited, but then I have one them up here once or twice so that they can experience the the Midwestern lifestyle and the four seasons. My mom was particularly did not have not seen snow since she moved from Hong Kong. And so she was just really wanted to experience it.

Nancy Surak 06:30
That's aweseome. So when you began working with focus, I think you said a little bit over eight years ago, what were some of the things that you did there? And what were some of your earlier roles?

Vicky Lee 06:41
Yeah. So when I first started, I was a development manager. And that essentially means being the day to day on a job from front to end, be involved in the entitlements, hiring consultants, getting drawings done, and then sending out to our GC team, we do have our own general contractor team. So it's literally walking across the office to get their input on pricing. But then when it when the building is under construction, acting as owners rep, the reviewing shop drawings and our buys and a problems that come up, and then making decisions on behalf of ownership.

Nancy Surak 07:13
And then you just kind of went from there inside the company.

Vicky Lee 07:16
Yeah.

Nancy Surak 07:17
So talk to me a little bit about your expansion into the southeast. I know you rattled off the markets. I will confess, I didn't know that you guys were down here in Tampa. I'm a little embarrassed by that. Because I am a little bit more familiar now with the project that you guys are doing in St. Pete. But I would love to know kind of what you're doing in those markets, like what sorts of projects you're focused on and what you guys are hoping to accomplish.

Vicky Lee 07:43
Yeah, and so we started looking at expanding probably a couple years ago, actually, right before COVID But then COVID hits so no one could fly out anyways. The idea being that we have a certain growth projection that we want to hit and doing developments only in one city probably won't get us there. And so we needed to look elsewhere and we basically visited a bunch of cities and then analyze what the the rent growth or potential were, what the income of that population was, etc. because right now our bread and butter is multifamily. And we want our first building outside of Chicagoland to also be multifamily because we know it so well. And so in Miami Brickell as well as St. Petersburg, we we found A+ sites because we want to expand it with like luxury class A the best buildings ever. For our site in Brickell is an acre of just shy of an acre. It'll be about 517 units, 40 stories, high luxury class, a rental multifamily about a block away from Brickell City Center. So a really great location.

Nancy Surak 08:48
Amazing location.

Vicky Lee 08:49
And then our St. Petersburg one, also great location. It's about two blocks south of Central and then four blocks away from the bay, it's 367 units and 24 stories high. St. Petersburg was this year in June, and then the Miami one was in November of last year.

Nancy Surak 09:02
And you guys closed on that, was that this year, last year? So when you guys see headlines, I mean, obviously, if you just recently closed that you're quite familiar what's happening down in the in the St. Pete, downtown district with theTrop but seeing that even get further along especially I think it was, you know, last week or the week before when it was like all over the news again, right. And for those listeners who are not who are here today with us, but not as intimately familiar with the St. Pete market. The Tampa Bay Rays is our baseball team and for at least 10 years if not longer. There's just been just crazy talk about them leaving and not only leaving the region but leaving St Pete coming over to the Tampa side of the of the bay and just every year or so. It's just always tons of news around like where are the Rays gonna go and they finally just recently announced they finally made a deal with the city on the property and is going to completely transform. And I'm just doing this Vicky for the folks that are listening. It's like an 86 I think 86 or 90 acre parcel completely going to transform downtown St. Petersburg. And your site is really what, maybe four blocks diagonal from that?

Vicky Lee 10:20
And actually, if I looked at the plan correctly, they're moving the stadium a little bit over to the east as well. So we'll even be even closer to, to where our site is. And it's so exciting to see that happen, especially with a group like Hines who is a big developer that can actually get this done. Or to see so much revitalization coming into St. Petersburg is great, because that central street while very active and very energetic, especially at nighttime, as I as I walk down the street. I think this redevelopment will take it to the next level.

Nancy Surak 10:53
Yeah, I certainly think that will I mean, just a huge catalyst, but you got your project you've got I think it's 400 Central is another one. I'm super excited for that area of downtown St. Pete, I think it's way overdue. And it's going to make it a much bigger city here, regionally. St. Pete is a great office market, but it is a smaller version than what we have over in Tampa. So to know that all that investment is coming in is pretty remarkable. So I was looking at your St. Pete project looks like forgive me if you already stated this. It's 24. storeys, correct. Correct. And mostly all multifamily. You do have a commercial component.

Vicky Lee 11:37
We do on the southwest corner of the building, there will be space for retail. And we it's a little early to talk to a retailer. But we hear that people are interested.

Nancy Surak 11:46
Yeah, and I'm sure you guys have been over in the the edge district and seeing kind of all their commercial. So it's down there. All along Central. It's down there. There's the I don't think or is it 6000 square feet? Is that what you guys are putting in that? You're not gonna have any issue? Yeah, there's gonna be folks like all over Yes.

12:04
And it will be great, because I appreciate the type of retail that is on central with like, the more intimate local shops that have character. And so we're excited to have that in our building as well.

Nancy Surak 12:18
Yeah it's really what I think makes St. Pete St. Pete. It's so different than what you would find in like downtown Tampa. And it really does give it its own character, which is really cool. Okay, so when you're looking beyond the St. Pete market, I think you wrote off Atlanta and Charlotte, I think there was one other location.

Vicky Lee 12:38
Raleigh.

Nancy Surak 12:39
Raleigh, used to live in Raleigh, which is fun. What sorts of projects are you doing there? Have you already purchased there? Are you guys still looking? What's kind of your business plan in those markets?

Vicky Lee 12:50
We haven't purchased anything yet. We are still looking. I think right now, given the state of the market, we want to be able to service our current projects. Well, first, but then as an effort to diversify our portfolio, I think our next ones that we wanted buying would be a little bit more neighborhood slash suburban where we would look to do a lower, I don't say lower density, because we do like to do 250 to 300 units, but just lower height and maybe a wrap podium style building. And it's so similar to what we do in Chicago, where we do a lot of urban infill building new development. We also do a lot of suburban buildings that aren't garden style, though. It's more live work, play check all the boxes near transit, walkable to grocery walkable to restaurants and bars. And so we will be looking for that same topology in our next development.

Nancy Surak 13:41
So if somebody has a site and one of those markets, they should be reaching out to you or something.

Vicky Lee 13:45
Yes absolutely.

Nancy Surak 13:47
So in your past eight plus years, or even you want to go back to when you're in New York, what's been your most favorite deal that you've ever been involved with or worked on?

Vicky Lee 13:58
So it would be absolutely my first deal here at Focus. It's called the Atworth at Mellody Farm. It's about 260, exactly 260 units, sitting on about seven acres, and it was kind of in partnership with Regency Centers who owned 50 acres of land. And we bought the land from them, but we went through entitlement together they build 270,000 square feet of new retail, which in this day and age is practically unheard of just given the state of retail, but they had a great vision that I had talked about earlier with, with the live, work, play dynamic and having moments within their new retail center that would allow for for gathering intimate gatherings and things like concerts or outdoor yoga and so you can envision that those Instagram have moments right. And so it was very successful because it was they were able to get Whole Foods to come. And then also other retailers like Nordstrom Rack and then lots of local restaurants. And I think they were able to lease up their retail in early, relatively very short amount of time. And they weren't shy about turning away retailers that didn't fit the dynamic. So I have a lot of respect for them and, and being able to maintain their vision. But then on our side, the 260 multifamily units, we were able to build that project ahead of schedule, and also under budget, and was able to lease up the entire apartment about 10 months.

Nancy Surak 15:29
Wow, wow, wow. Wow. Like I'm like, okay, ahead of schedule. Like, this never happens. That's amazing. Congratulations. Under budget, I've not heard those words. In it, oh, gosh, in probably since like 2012, or 13. I mean, it's, it's been a good decade, especially now. And then leasing up so quickly, like really remarkable. So the stars really alligned. Like, how do you follow that?

Vicky Lee 16:00
Exactly. So every time like always tried to save even more to try to be more ahead of schedule. But obviously, there's a lot of outside factors.

Nancy Surak 16:08
Sure. So is a great, great segue because I jotted down, you know, to go back to your architecture days. Most of the women who I interview that are on the development side, like pure like they're managing developers like, like you. They didn't necessarily come through the engineering or the architecture side of the business. That has got to help you tremendously, not only the language and vocabulary, but really understanding how buildings like are built, and designed and how they function. How much do you think that has helped you in your career growth, and in your success?

Vicky Lee 16:46
It's definitely helped a lot. And the reason being, as you mentioned, having the dictionary in my back pocket where when I'm speaking with the consultants, and when I'm speaking with the general contractors, they know that I'm not just saying something just for the sake of saying it. And, and I have some background behind what I'm saying, and I know what I'm talking about. And so that provides validity, and provides trust. And so I think having that background, I build a good relationship upfront, being able to speak the language and being able to have a dialogue instead of asking for information that may or may sometimes be needless. But then and then also, you know, going back and forth, and it just makes the process easier.

Nancy Surak 17:29
Do you in your role, do you when plans are you know, I know you guys were I would expect for you guys have like a whole architecture team that you either have in house or that you hire on projects? Does that experience come out in the design phase? Do you use kind of leave your fingerprint on things while they're in design too like, you know, I want it to look like this.

Vicky Lee 17:49
Yes, absolutely. So we don't have an it house. But as you said, we do hire architects outside. And actually our Tim our CEO is also an architect by background and then our executive vice president, also an architect. And in fact, two to three others in our team also have architecture backgrounds. So you see a pattern of the type of people we do like to hire because our our motto is to really build buildings that can make an impact and make a good type of good design sense. And also be profitable. But I think when we whenever we do start a project and have concept design, Tim and I are heavily involved in terms of providing comments and providing even sometimes ideas, obviously being respectful of respectful of the consultants and not, you know, crossing the line, but, but we do have our preferences and offer opinions. And sometimes when we're looking at new projects where you know, we just want to see if it's even feasible, we'll just take pen and paper and draw it out and see if it works before we officially hire an architect.

Nancy Surak 18:55
Yeah. Now that's that's an amazing skill. I you know, I tell people a lot and I mentioned it a lot on the show. I'm married to civil engineer in the business. And what that's done for just my knowledge has been really remarkable. You know, it's really interesting, a lot of folks think that we have pillow talk and I'm like, please God, no, like I I live and breathe this all day. And so to see like, the last thing we want to do is talk business when we both get home, right? However, my learning trajectory, just really understanding like the whole project other than just being around it my whole life. You know, my adult life, being able to pick up the phone and say, hey, I've encountered this. I don't know what this means. Can you help me understand it? It's just like a catapult. Like it's really made a huge difference for me. So I can only imagine if you studied it for four or five, five years probably how much that would really be strong foundation.

Vicky Lee 19:49
Yeah, absolutely. And where it shows up the most is when you see one of your consultants make a decision and you know right off the bat that that is an expensive decision and probably unnecessary and you can course correct it.

Nancy Surak 20:02
Like you know, like, that's not going to work. Right? Yeah. Or lean into new trends. So let's talk about trends. How much? Or do you ever look at those designs and say like, this is a trend that I'm watching or that I'm interested in, I wanted to look like this, or I wanted to make sure the functionality is here for some new trend like, does that come into play for you?

20:25
More so on the functionality side, for example, during COVID, a lot of people were working from home. And while we see a lot of people coming back into the office, especially in Chicago, I forget what the exact percentage was, I think a lot of people are experiencing more flexibility, where maybe they come in four days a week, and then work from home one day, a week, and etc. And so a lot of the trends that we're seeing is apartment building are things flexible and providing work areas or workstations where they can actually have a space to themselves, so that they can work there instead of being in the kitchen table or the counter, or even sometimes in your bedroom, on your bed with that in the background. And so having that available and yet and also providing more building amenities that are related to that. So we've expanded co working spaces in our building that would be free to all residents to use so that they can get maybe even even a private room. If they want to work from home on site, but still be outside of their home, they can have that optionality.

Nancy Surak 21:25
Yeah, so during COVID, we were we were fairly open. The Tampa Bay region was closed for about five weeks. So I tell people, and it's interesting that you mentioned earlier in the, in our conversation that people couldn't travel. I knew in June of 2020, that things were about to pop off here in the Tampa Bay region. Because I had folks coming from driving driving from Atlanta, Charlotte, New York, they were doing like road trips down to Florida. And they would walk into my office, I was in a co workspace, they would walk in and they would say, I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to be meeting in person that we have, like kinda this company directive. Yeah. But we know Florida's open. And we know that if we're not down here, looking at sites and talking to brokers, like you like we are going to miss the opportunity. So we're here. And I was like, what? And it was happening so frequently, that I was like, Oh, my God, things are about to get crazy. And so it was it was actually really wonderful. Because I could tell all my landowners, like we'd have to sell, I was like, the guy on TV, sell, sell, sell, like, get like, let's get everything on the market. Because there's just I could just see the demand train just like coming for land. Not to mention the demand for folks that were moving here to it was like all happening at the same time. So it doesn't surprise me that you guys were like, Oh, we're gonna go down to the Tampa Bay region. I think everybody came down. But it's great. And I love the fact that you guys were saying like, how are things changing the functionality of a building? Because during that summer, I had two or three, I think three multifamily deals under contract, like prior to the big shutdown, and they were all in various stages. And I remember saying to one of the developers, hey, are you guys changing your plans? Are you gonna need like, more time? Like what, like, tell me, well, how this is happening? And he's like, why would we change our plans? And I said, well, because I think there's gonna be a huge demand for Co workspace. I think people may not, I don't know if people are gonna go back to the office. But I think that apartment communities, the big clubhouse is great, but I was like, but I think people are gonna want these like conference rooms and a place like, not a phone booth, not like a tiny space, but a place where they can go and sit and have like, some quiet time.

Vicky Lee 23:50
Absolutely.

Nancy Surak 23:51
And we chat. I remember the conversation, like we chatted about it in depth. And I'm like, oh, it's cool to hear you saying, you know, three and a half years later. Oh, yeah, that's like totally a thing.

Vicky Lee 24:03
We were a little lucky because when we were designing and building up in northern suburbs, we had already said that happening. And so we started putting the co working space in our buildings. And so I think we're one of the first to do that in the suburbs out here.

Nancy Surak 24:16
Well that's awesome. I wish we were doing work back then. I hope that we could do work in the future as well. I just have a couple more questions for you. When you look back at your career, you know, I asked you about your favorite deal. What have you been most proud of?

Vicky Lee 24:36
I've been most proud of taking the leap into doing this. Going to business school and and just leaving behind a job that I was on a trajectory of growth path and saying, you know what, let's do this. I will have to take out a giant loan for business school, but I'm going to take the leap of faith and do this and try it out.

Nancy Surak 24:55
That's awesome. I love that very much. And then what It has been your biggest challenge.

Vicky Lee 25:03
You know, it's a little similar, similar to that in the sense where back when I was applying for different schools I didn't say, let's let's take the leap and tried for the Harvard or the Stanford and so I regret not making those decisions. And so now as I assess, making new decisions and new risks, like assessing, well, why not just give it a try and see if it happens? If the consequences aren't dire, then take the risk and give it a go.

Nancy Surak 25:35
Yeah, I like to tell people I mean, like, what's the worst that can happen? If it's not death, you can recover from just about anything else?

25:42
Exactly. If it's a $500 application for you just do it right.

Nancy Surak 25:46
Now, that's, that's fantastic. Okay, so with that, I'd like to at the end of every interview, I love to ask three questions. Sure. The first of those is an I don't know, you may or may not have one of these. But I'd love to ask, is there a book or a podcast that you have read or listened to recently or at a point in your life that has been particularly inspiring or meaningful that you think everybody should check out?

Vicky Lee 26:13
I really enjoyed reading In Praise of Difficult Women by Karen Karbo. So for those of you who don't know, it's a bunch of short stories about women who have broken into their industry and have been a-typical in their industry. And my favorite story is about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, where she attended Harvard, I think, one year later than her husband. And at that time, her husband had, unfortunately had testicular cancer, and so wasn't able to do a lot of the coursework and everything. So in addition to her own coursework, she dictated his papers and his notes and was able to carry the load for for two of them for the for the majority of their law school.

Nancy Surak 26:59
I didn't know that about her. Yeah. Well, I'm gonna definitely put that on my reading list. I'll definitely add that to the show notes for folks. I started asking that question, really, because I'm selfish. And I listened to a ton of audiobooks. And I'm always looking for like the next one. And I love like career oriented, or really motivational stories and books, because I feel like, you know, this is a pretty hard, challenging business. And I always need like somebody in my head being like, you can do it. So I love I love that I can't wait to read it. So thanks for sharing that. And then I love to ask the question. That, you know, in your case, you went to architecture school, and then you got into development. But if somebody were to call you just completely out of the blue one day, regardless of what they're studying are, what their interests are. And they say, I really think I want to be a developer. What one piece of advice would you give them in order to help them be successful.

Vicky Lee 27:53
So I would say to talk to anyone and everyone in the real estate industry, even if they aren't a developer, if there are brokers, zoning attorney, you name it, being able to speak to someone you never know, who knows someone else that may have a development position open, because, as I understand it, a lot of development firms like ourselves run pretty lean. And there's no constant or no cycle of recruiting, unlike banking, or consulting, where there's like a schedule set schedule, every year you interview, you do this, and there's job availability, it's really depending on turn and need. And so the sooner you can speak with anyone, you can get on their radar so that they can recommend you. And also if there are no positions open to just take the closest thing you can and learn about the industry. Because every wall is a little different. Every real estate industry has something to do with development, and you can leverage your experience that way.

Nancy Surak 28:50
Great advice. Thank you. And then finally, if, if somebody wanted to follow what you guys are doing as a company, or you in particular, where's the best place for them to follow you? Are you active on obviously, we connected over LinkedIn. But is that a place where you're active? Or do you have like other social media that folks could follow you on?

Vicky Lee 29:10
LinkedIn is where I'm most active in relation to my profession. But then also our web, our company website, www.workwithfocus.com also has regular updates on what we're doing in terms of our development.

Nancy Surak 29:24
Awesome. Well, I want to thank you for giving me time today and for joining me on the show for sharing your story and you know, going through like you know, your advice and things that you love about what you do every day. It's incredibly meaningful for me to have somebody with your experience on the show. So thank you for that. And again, I will just reiterate, I really hope that we can do some business in the future and I wish you guys the best of luck on your project in St. Pete. When you come down next time please reach out to me let's connect or grab your a drink or a meal and, you know, maybe show you something that you haven't seen in the market.

Vicky Lee 30:00
Absolutely. Thanks for having us. And I love what you're doing with the show in terms of getting the industry out to women.

Nancy Surak 30:06
Yep absolutle. This is my legacy. In addition to selling land, I'm like, You know what, that's I'm going to make this one difference. And this is my contribution. So thanks again for joining me. And we'll chat soon.

Vicky Lee 30:16
Thank you.

Nancy Surak 30:17
Thank you for joining me today on another episode of She's Wild the podcast for women in land and development. If you enjoyed today's episode, please go out and rate us right now so that other folks just like you can find us. And if you know a total Rockstar woman who's working in land and development or commercial real estate, who is either just getting started or is more seasoned. Please tell her about the show. And finally, if you know someone who you think would make an excellent guest, I am always looking for inspiring women to interview and I would love your recommendations. please connect with me on any of my social media accounts by searching Nancy Surak.