Smarter Real Estate

Settling In

Beginning this month, some neighbors will move into a new home with a lake view never before enjoyed from a livingroom window. The six-story Overlook at C.C. Young offers 108 senior (age 55 plus) living units with huge windows overlooking White Rock Lake (not to mention spacious quarters, restaurants, a park and a beauty shop that will also be opened to the public). When the Overlook at C.C. Young was announced, not everyone in the neighborhood was excited about the proposed eight-story project. Recently appointed C.C. Young president and CEO Kent Shields was the operations manager at the time. “A tall building like that was unprecedented in the area, and a few of our neighbors were concerned that if we were approved, high rises would start popping up. Like those people, we are concerned about the lake and the park. We decided that, really, the answer was to improve communication. We reminded people that C.C. Young has been in Dallas since 1922; we’ve been at this location since 1963. We are invested in this neighborhood and don’t want to build anything that would detract from it.” Though there were some naysayers,

C.C. Young enjoyed the support of most of the community and the current residents, Shields says. “Most of the neighborhood supported the project 80 percent of our residents are from the Lakewood and Lake Highlands areas. They want to be here because this is home. We are, in a way, obligated to build a place for these residents to live,” Shields says. “And the support from the existing residents for the project was overwhelming. When the city council held the zoning hearing, so many of our residents wanted to attend that we chartered three buses. They filled that little room. In the end, it was approved for six stories rather than eight.” A few years later, some of the opponents have had a change of heart, Shields says. “I am happy to report that some of those who were most concerned are now some of our biggest supporters. In fact, one of the women who voiced the most concern [has moved] her parent in.”

—Christina hughes BaBB

LeArN more about the Overlook and other residences and services at C.C. Young at ccyoung.org, or call the residential living department at 214.874.7474.

A Career Launch

“Aidan is always taking things apart. For him, it’s just play,” says Lu Ann Shank of her son Aidan’s penchant for inventing. But neither she nor Aidan, who will be a Woodrow Wilson High School junior this fall, ever expected this “play” to pay off the way it has. Aidan’s invention of a T-shirt launcher-type instrument has landed him a plane ticket to New York and a chance to win $10,000 at the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in October. What began as an assignment in his Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) class at school has turned out to be potentially life-changing. Aidan’s inspirational teacher, Tom Crabb, charged each student with creating a business plan, and Aidan took it a step further by creating a business plan for his original invention. Aidan initially invented what he calls his “cheer launcher” when he heard that his former teacher, the cheerleading sponsor, desperately needed something that could launch the squad’s spirit shells, which are candy-filled toilet paper tubes. He initially tried using PVC and hot glue; it didn’t work, but it got him thinking. The final prototype is a toy that has the ability to propel. It’s a cross bow and a slingshot made from PVC, and it can send the cheerleaders’ spirit shells flying. Armed with his trusty launcher and a PowerPoint business plan, Aidan made it through round after round of judges in the citywide and regional NFTE competitions. These wins earned him $1,000 and two weeks of entrepreneur camp this summer at the University of Texas-Dallas. “I’ve learned how school subjects connect to the real world ... like how English is good for public speaking, and math can help you run a business,” Aidan says. But the big prize may be only a few months away. If he wins, Aidan plans to put the money toward his patent and trademark. Eventually he wants to sell the cheer launchers to squads all over, each launcher uniquely painted in school colors. “I want to learn machining and molding and get access to more materials and tools,” Aidan says. “I want to make more stuff and be an inventor.”

—MEGHAN RINEY