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Editors Please Note: This event will include a question-and-answer session at the end of the “Fishbowl” interview. During this session, media are invited to stay and listen but are asked to hold questions until after the event, when Chesrown will answer media questions.

Marshall Chesrown, a Spokane native and major commercial real-estate developer, will take part in the Gonzaga University Comprehensive Leadership Program (CLP) Fishbowl at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 4 in the Foley Teleconference Center. Due to space restrictions, the event is not open to the public or the rest of the GU community. 

Chesrown grew up in Spokane Valley, but left home at age 18 to find out more about the world and play jazz. He had planned to attend college to study music, but after working for a summer at a Buick dealership, Chesrown realized that he had another valuable talent: selling cars. By age 22, he was a minority owner at a Chrysler dealership, and for the next 20 years he worked to build a string of successful dealership in the West. By age 39, he was able to return to the Inland Northwest and possibly retire, but Chesrown was not ready to stop working. Instead he chose to create Black Rock Development [http://www.blackrockdevelopment.com/], a luxury golf community and group of river-side condominiums located in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Now he is working on the 77-acre Kendall Yards project. Formerly known as the Summit Property, Kendall Yards, located on the north bank of the Spokane River, west of Monroe Street, is the location for a proposed major expansion of downtown Spokane. The proposal includes residences, dining, shopping and public spaces.

Prior to the Oct. 4 event, some 80 CLP students will have dinner at the Kendall Yards site and listen to project manager Tom Reese describe plans for its development. By doing so, the students hope to gain a better sense of the project’s scope and impact on the city and the region.

CLP offers its Fishbowl each semester to expose students to various Inland Northwest leaders. Past speakers have included Harold Gilkey, CEO of Sterling Savings Bank; Betsy Cowles, chair of the board for Cowles Publishing Co; Rev. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., president of Gonzaga University; and Frank Swoboda, principal at Corner Booth Productions.

CLP aims to develop in students a sense of leadership and encourages them to get involved at GU and in the Spokane community. Students apply to the program as freshmen through a competitive process and come to the program from all fields of study.

“The program seeks to provide students with opportunities to develop and enhance a personal philosophy of leadership that includes understanding of self, others and community within the framework of Gonzaga’s mission-focused values of service, justice, faith, ethics and leadership,” said Josh Armstrong, CLP director. For more information, contact Armstrong at (509) 323-6493 or via e–mail at armstrongj@gonzaga.edu.

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