Our story

DREAMING WITH YOUR EYES OPEN ….

We all dream about the ideal work place, the same way we dream about our home or our next vacation. That’s how our story starts... with a dream. A dream about a dynamic health care facility where patients will find multiple healthcare professionals working hand-in-hand for a better outcome and a better patient experience. I confess, although I have dreamed about this for a long time, I was very nervous about engaging in such a project. I had been planning for a long time but never actually started until I met the right people. They were excited about this idea and offered to help my dream on paper.

ON A TABLE AT STARBUCKS ….

I knew Terryanne from my former work place and I learned to appreciate her qualities. She is a little ball of sparks and energy. Hard to understand some times especially by me, as I tend to measure time and time again before I cut once. She throws her heart in every project she pursues, pumping energy and moving mountains if needed. When she became available, Maria, my wife, encouraged me to contact her, knowing that she would be the medium needed for our idea to grow. I met with Terryanne on a sunny morning at Starbucks and asked her if she would be interested in taking on such a job. Needless to say, she was thrilled by it! That location became our regular meeting place.

WRITTEN ON A PIECE OF MATH PAPER .…

We started by looking for a proper location that could accommodate our needs for space and location. Not an easy task! London is very packed and empty space is not easy to find. We started visiting available buildings to see which one would work. Terry Daniel, Terryanne’s husband, attended these viewings giving us his input from a building contractor’s perspective. One building was too old, other had too many stairs. There was one particular building we liked a lot. It was an old historic home at the gates on the University, but the deal didn’t go through. From there on we decided to build something to suit. We found a location in a newly developing area at the city boundaries. It still had corn stalks in the ground from last year! It is hard to look at a bare piece of land in the middle of nowhere and decide to invest your whole life in it. So, using a piece of squared paper, one from my daughter’s math book, we started drawing a crude representation of a floor plan, reception, waiting area, dental ops, medical ops, offices …

THE TEAM .…

I contacted my good friend Elliot Laxer. He worked for a large construction company and he was the person I often went to for advice. Elliot helped me to understand what a land developer goes through and I am very sad that he is not among us to see the results. It was up to Terryanne to find the team of designers and engineers to translate the crude design that we had into a viable building. Terryanne asked Simon Coles, our architect to draw the most progressive building he could do. Arranging for financing was not as much a problem as it was to have all the papers in order. Finally, Ted Melcher, the general contractor broke ground in June ’09.

WEEK-END AFTER WEEK-END .…

Finding time in between a full time job and raising two small children is not easy. We used to sneak out for a couple of minutes and see the progression of the building. All of our trips to the park or to the mall nearby would take a route by Hyde Park Road. It was extremely exciting to see the building growing. Our kids were excited too. It was a time when we had to make decision after decision and it was kind of hard because we liked everything that was proposed to us.