Jennifer Lopez and boyfriend Alex Rodriguez devise real estate project for U

To amass a fortune in real estate, despite New York's crazy housing prices: that is the challenge thrown down by singer Jennifer Lopez and her boyfriend Alex Rodriguez to kids from the Bronx, the city's poorest borough. Around 50 young students from the Bronx, most of them black or Latino, have been selected for Project Destined, designed by JLo and A-Rod, as the retired baseball superstar Rodriguez is known, to teach them the ins and outs of financing and real estate.

The youths underwent intense instruction from lawyers, bankers, mortgage companies and realtors, but the course will not be just theoretical. The student team that comes up with the best business plan will have the chance to buy a building worth USD 1.5 million in the Bronx and develop it. That was the philosophy of the project's two founders, Fred Greene and Cedric Bobo, who wanted to pass on their knowledge and experience to kids from humble backgrounds.

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