Surendra Ullal
CHICGAO: Daily Herald newspaper’s Business Ledger this year presented its prestigious award to an India woman business entrepreneur Dr Anuja Gupta, Managing Partner of Verandah Retirement Community, during a beautiful award ceremony at the Belvedere Plaza Hotel in Elk Grove Village, IL. Verandah is the Midwest’s first multicultural retirement community to focus on Indian-Americans lifestyles.
The Daily Herald Business Ledger has run this award for many years recognizing many powerful business women. The selection in a way meant recognizing influential women in Chicago business. The Verandah is located in Schaumburg township’s Village of Hanover Park. It recently celebrated its grand opening on Oct 28.
Dr Anuja is an entrepreneur physician-turned-real estate developer with a passion for women-empowerment. After practicing as a Cardiologist in the south suburbs of Chicagoland for 14 years she recently switched to a career as a full-time Real Estate Developer. She is currently the General Partner of Verandah Retirement Community, a senior living development in Schaumburg Township. Dr. Gupta co-founded WE, a networking & empowerment platform for Indian women in Chicago.
Dr. Gupta completed her medical education with distinction from a top medical school of India in Mumbai. After medical school she came to the US for postgraduate training. She graduated as a Pediatric Cardiologist from the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center in 2002. She practiced as a Cardiologist in the south suburbs of Chicago till 2017. As a medical physician she was widely recognized by many articles in academic journals.
Along with a medical career she pursued an escalating interest in real estate. She trained herself to do real estate seriously first as a hobby & later as a full-time career. Starting with small properties fixing & flipping she built a successful real estate portfolio for her family. In 2012 she entered the field of real estate development with developing a townhome community in Bourbonnais, IL.
After successfully completing that development, in 2015 she embarked on a very ambitious development that combined her passions for medicine & real estate. Verandah Retirement Community is a $43 million planned unit development in Schaumburg Township that includes independent senior living, assisted living & memory care designed to uniquely celebrate both Indian & American lifestyles that Dr. Gupta has master-minded.
Dr. Gupta has primarily led the Verandah project as it’s General Partner from the inception to construction to sales, currently in its third year of development. The project involved many complex parts including feasibility study, vetting multiple land parcels, selection of the team, design development, a prolonged entitlement process which included securing a very competitive tax increment financing (TIF) grant from the village of Hanover Park, development of financial model, securing financing, start of construction, marketing & promotion & start of sales. Dr. Gupta was responsible for all aspects of the development process so far.
In 2017 Dr Gupta co-founded the Women’s Empowerment Campaign of Chicago (WE) to give back to the community. WE is an organization for networking & empowerment of Indian women in Chicago with 1700+ members. Her other commendable achievements include being a board member of the Will County Economic Development Board She also serves as vice-president of the Iskcon Temple in Naperville, IL
Dr. Gupta describes herself as a passionate individual who constantly challenges herself to do better & be more impactful. She finds overcoming successively bigger obstacles very personally gratifying.
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