"It's a deal!" Continental Real Estate Chairman Frank Kass thrives on the challenge to pull together the pieces of a deal to create new uses for vacant properties. Frank is a home-grown success story. His father came to Columbus from Czechoslovakia in 1939 to escape the atrocities of the Nazi's in Europe. He began selling office supplies out of his car as a way to support his new family. Although his father died when Kass was a young child, he had laid the foundation for Continental Real Estate for his son. The younger Kass graduated from Bexley High School and then The Ohio State University with a degree in finance and real estate. He and his business partner, Jack Lucks, grew Continental from an office supply company to a real estate development company involved in retail, residential, office and entertainment projects, as well as construction. With the primary focus on Columbus and Pittsburgh, the company works in many other states. Known as a visionary businessman, Kass has been described as a calculated risk-taker. His sense of creativity has given him the ability to look at an empty field or former industrial site and see new shopping, living and working communities. He and his company gained recognition for creating such districts with the Lennox Town Center in Columbus, on Olentangy River Road just southwest of OSU, and The Waterfront in Pittsburgh in 1999, for which he was named a top business leader in Pittsburgh by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.