Art Chicago 2007 - New Art from Robin Williams

Two very different peices from a new young artist, Robin Williams:

"Double Dare" (on paper)



"Yours and Mine" (on canvas)

The Dirt Lawyer's Blog - David Stejkowski

Friday, April 13, 2007

Howard Tullman - at it again!

I don't know Howard Tullman personally. I have, however, represented clients where he was on the other side of the deal, and some of my best clients do know him.

Great, the guy is a savvy investor and VC. That's one thing. But what I really like about the guy is what he has done for educational institutions in Chicago. GlobeSt.com reports today that Flashpoint Academy, a new school for recording, film, game development and computer animation opening this fall, has leased 58,000 sf of space at 111 W. Washington in Chicago.

I hope Tullman is as successful in this venture as he was with turning around Kendall College. I did a little work for Kendall back in the late 90s, and back then it was a very good, but somewhat sleepy, it seemed, cooking school in Evanston with, IIRC, a small liberal arts program to boot.

Tullman became the president of Kendall and found an opportunity to move the school to a location downtown. In a deal I also worked on in the late 90s, Sara Lee Corporation leased a century-old rehabbed building (a project called Riverworks) near downtown Chicago for bakery test kitchens. Early on in the lease, Sara Lee decided to move their test kitchens elsewhere. What do you do with the build-to-suit location? In a stroke of development brilliance by all parties involved (I was not, alas, part of that portion of the deal, so no credit to me at all), Kendall moved to the city and the school has gone gangbusters since.

Mr. Tullman is also a dedicated blogger. Assuming he does it himself, I don't know how he finds the time, but good for him!


About Me

David Stejkowski

I am a principal in the law firm of Stejkowski & Zaffere LLC, with offices in Chicago and in Bourbonnais, Illinois, where I have lived since 2003. I am a graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and the University of Southern California in sunny Los Angeles, and I am licensed to practice in both Illinois and California (currently inactive). My practice is limited to commercial real estate transactions, leases and related businesss matters throughout the United States, and I've had the good fortune to have closed billions of dollars of transactions in this field.
View my complete profile

Brand New Painting by Jenny Morgan from Plus Gallery

Really excited about Jenny Morgan's new work and upcoming show. She's working on a larger scale and the work is really terrific.

"Caitlins Posing"



The Artist Documenting her surprise.

Looking Forward to Speaking at Web Content 2007 - June 18 and 19

Content is king at Web Content 2007 - June 18 and 19 in Chicago

Content really is king at the Web Content 2007 Conference. Just take a look at the courtly procession of keynote speakers.

On Day One, you’ll have the opportunity to hear the crown-head of content, Ann Rockley of The Rockley Group, give her best advice on Using Web Content To Build the Customer Relationship. It’s no secret that giving your customers personalized attention keeps them happy and increases referrals. But how do you do that on the Web? By organizing and controlling content to develop a reciprocal relationship. It’s like any relationship. You know they love you because they keep coming back. They know you love them because you give them things that want and need. Tim O’Reilly (Mr. Web 2.0 himself) just made that point rather plainly at last month’s Web 2.0 Expo. “It’s about network effects and (building) services that get better the more people use them.” But you need lots of content control, i.e., content management to do that. Don’t worry. Ann will tell you how.

For lunch on Day One how about a radical change—not from the baked chicken, but from the typical lunchtime speaker? You’ll hear the rebellion in Howard Tullman’s voice when he delivers his topic, Managing Radical Change in Turbulent Times. But we hate change! Don’t let that stop you or you might get trapped in what Howard calls this “time of radical obsolescence.” That should scare you enough to stay for dessert and another glass of tea while Howard tells you exactly how to manage all this change so you stay off the list of 21 Biggest Technology Flops.

On Day Two enter the unconventional realm of Jason Fried’s (37 Signals) discussion on web-based collaboration. TIME Magazine called 37 Signals one of the Net’s rising stars. Using software as a service is becoming a popular way to “buy” software your organization needs without spending lots of up-front cash or paying for upgrades. But did you know it’s also a hot way to manage projects? Everyone on the team can log on and see what’s happing, what they are supposed to be doing, and what was due yesterday. Don’t miss Jason’s discussion, Unconventional Collaboration.

And don’t even think about leaving the conference early and missing Salim Ismail. He’s from Yahoo! So you are gonna want to hear what he has to say about—well anything really—but his closing keynote is about How Web 2.0 is changing the way we manage content on the web. He should know, he heads up Brickhouse. Yahoo!’s program for rapid product development. If you don’t believe us, check out his bio. Everyone knows about Web 2.0, but not everyone knows what Salim knows. And he’s happy to tell us all about how he sees the future of content on the web.

New Article in American Art Collector on Jennifer Presant - May 2007 Issue

Jennifer has a new show opening this coming week at the Linda Warren Gallery in Chicago which looks great. And she's pretty cute too.



Jennifer's piece from the Tullman Collection.

New Article in American Art Collector - May, 2007 Issue

Nice article on Jeanette Pasin Sloan with comments from Klaudia Marr who's my very favorite dealer in Santa Fe.







Nice Description of Klaudia Marr Gallery in this Issue as well.

Kenney Mencher Piece featured in The Artist's Magazine Article - June 2007 Issue

Our piece - Two Schools - is the centerfold in a very nice article by Kenney Mencher that appears in the June, 2007 issue of The Artist's Magazine. The article is reproduced below:














The same issue also has a nice small piece on Eric Wert.

Flashpoint Academy - Construction Update

Work continues on the 28 North Clark Street site and the demolition for the floor-thru staircase has been completed. Most of the walls have been laid out and work should begin this coming week on adding drywall to the studs, etc. Some pix appear below:

Nice Note on the Think Equity Think Tomorrow Today Conference

There was a nice mention of both Experiencia and Flashpoint in a recent C/Net piece on the Think Equity conference.


May 11, 2007 1:24 PM PDT

The next big growth market: education
Posted by Michael Kanellos


Half Moon Bay, Calif.--A novel trend emerged at the Think Tomorrow Today conference here this week: educational investing.

Not as in "the government must invest more in education." Instead, a number of companies that specialize in managing schools or creating curriculum have begun to crop up on the in radar screen. And some are growing fast.

Mosaica Education, for instance, is expected to hit revenues of $120 million this year, according to CEO Michael Connelly, up from $65 million in 2003. Mosaica runs charter schools in many inner cities in the U.S. as well as in Abu Dhabi. The schools Mosaica runs are public (the revenue comes from government grants) but the company tries to import concepts from private schools.

In its schools, parents have to volunteer for at least an hour once a month, he said. Curriculum goals are set for students at the beginning of the year and students, teachers, the principal and parents must sign off on them. Teacher bonuses are tied to performance.

"The most important thing we do is parent involvement," he said.

Overall, kids see a test score increase of around 15.6 percent after a year in the schools, according to Connelly. (It's a complex formula and we will do more stories on this subject, so if you have questions, hold tight for now.)

p> Other educational companies appearing at the conference included Brightside Academy (child care centers), Experiencia (immersive learning programs), Flashpoint (digital media arts colleges), The Savvy Source for Parents (social network for families on things like preschool and summer camp) and SchoolNet (school performance management systems).

That's six education-related companies making pitches to investors at a conference usually dominated by semiconductor designers, cell phone companies and Internet companies. But it makes sense: opportunities in investing often come up through demographic changes, according to Michael Moe, founder of Think Equity partners and the sponsor of the conference.

Education, of course, has been a huge issue in the past several years. Parents are far more obsessed about getting their kids on the right educational track earlier than in the past. Countries like Singapore and Qatar have inked deals with name universities to help bring U.S. style colleges to their countries. Every politician talks about the need for a more educated workforce.

Interestingly, Moe has pointed out that the University of Phoenix has been one of the better performing stocks in the past 15 years.