the rules committee. she also sits on the san francisco county authority and the development authority board. i would like to express my appreciate for her unwaivering support through this project. it is my great pleasure to introduce the chair of the board of supervisors and district supervisor jane kim. [ applause ] good morning. and on behalf of the board of directors, we want to welcome you to what will be a landmark in san francisco. about two years ago mayor lee and i stood roughly in this area with maria to announce the ground breaking of the terminal site and at that time if you all remember it was a very different time. we were

talking about a time when construction had pretty much slowed to a halt in the city and we were greeting workers who had not worked for years. two years later we are standing at a different time where we have 47 cranes in the skylight here in san francisco. it's amazing how much has changed in the last two years. it's really the focal point of a comprehensive plan marking the new center of downtown surrounding transit also with housing, retail on jobs on a scale that has never been seen at this scale on the west coast. in total the program represents an exciting evolution for the city of san francisco. connecting 11 transit system and boosting the

5.4 acre city park. the transit will be an incredible asset to san francisco area. we are accommodating growth in a manner that both leverages our economic success while preserving our environment and a complete neighborhood that is safer for our pedestrians, open spaces for workers. places to work that you can walk to and places to live, 30 percent which will be affordable for our residents here in san francisco which will ensure a diverse community in this part of downtown. we must improve and enhance our infrastructure which trul highlights san francisco as a world class city. i have had the opportunity to be more intimately involved in this process and i know you have

done an incredible job. i have visited the tour and terminal that will improve our skyline. as a district supervisor for the south of market and district plan, i'm excite d that the existing residents will benefit from this neighborhood. i'm also proud to represent a city that is under taken such a large and complex project. mayor lee said we have to give thanks to our director, kaplan who has been our chief for years and to ensure a project happens like this on time. [ applause ] as an elected official i'm very sympathetic acknowledging other

officials, jose cisneros from our treasurer's office and former assembly woman, i would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge our former mayor willie brown and john mayor who has been very supportive. thank you to them as well. i recognize our director, but i think it's important to recognize our board of directors who has been really instrumental in advising this project from a construction standpoint and community standpoint and i want to recognize our directors, art lloyd, gabriel metcalf, director of mta and john, we also have alternate member greg

harper, a founding member of the board that will be participating more frequently. i want to thank everyone today. it's been a long process to get here. everyone involved in this project knows. thank you to everyone here. [ applause ] >> i for got to mention that our state senator mark leno has also presented a certificate of recognition to the transbay transit tower. it congratulations on the tower. on this occasion we mark an historic process that will transform san francisco as the

21st century hub. the city skyline creating thousands of jobs and stimulating local economic growth. congratulations and best wishes on this endeavor. senator mark leno. [ applause ] >> thank you, supervisor, very much appreciate your work and help throughout these years. thank you. if i can have maybe one of our team members grab this. thank you so much. now, it's my great pleasure to introduce our next speaker who is the architect of both the grand central station under construction and the new transit tower soon to be under construction. cesar appellee. he became dean of the school of architecture and founded the

cesar pally associates. his portfolio contains a wide variety of projects, a tower in malaysia, the world's tallest building, the world financial center in manhattan, the san bernardino city hall, the pacific design center in los angeles and us embassy in tokyo japan and another project in washington. mr. pally has over 200 degrees for design excellence. he was list is as the no. 1 architect and greatest achievement in architecture. he has formulated

conceptions of his design. the aesthetic qualities of a building should grow from characteristics of each project such as location, construction technology and a purpose. the tower is a marvelous expression of mr. pally's -- commitment. please welcome cesar pally. [ applause ] >> this is a very important day for me today. i have been dreaming about this tower and the center for over 6 years. now, this is all going to be reality. i hope not for long we'll all gather here to celebrate the opening of the tower and the center. i have

always loved san francisco. it's an incredible city. it's dynamic at the same time, it's gentle, it's an incredible place. we have designed the tower appropriate for this city. the tower will be a dynamic, elegant and very gracious. it will be building appropriate tower for this great city. now that it seems to be the tallest tower, but west of the mississippi, what a marvelous marker for this place. when you see it as a distance, this tower, you will know that the center is at it's space. when you arrive in san francisco from los angeles or san diego, you will be in this tower. so it's a marvelous

combination to have the gateway to the city and the tallest building next to each other. it's an extraordinary combivenlths combination for the center, a new place for the city. the tower will raise into sky and we have designed it to be as delicate as possible and to end that will almost dissolve in the air. it will be a very san franciscans tower. i'm very happy to be here today. thank you all very much. [ applause ] >> cesar doesn't age. he's just timeless. thank you, cesar.

our next speaker is synonymous with quality and development. he's got one of the most paramount development terms, he's involved with all policy and procedure and new centers and cultivating new investor relations. heinz has an impressive portfolio with value property of $24 billion. one of the many reasons we chose to work with heinz is because they have set and continue to set new industry standards for quality and real estate development and management. jerry, i want to personally take this opportunity to thank you very much for believing in our project 6 years ago. at that time many people thought we wouldn't get to this point and you did and stayed the course with us through a very

difficult economic period. that is one of the reasons he's so successful and admired by so many. thank you jerry, for helping with this success and we would not be able to keep one this project and without you believing in us. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. maria, mayor lee, supervisor kim, it's a real pleasure to be here today. it was such an exciting project and with my good friend zuckerman. boston properties is a great organization with strong commitment to excellence and environment. and let me give you one example of that. this building will be the first that i know of that will be

able to introduce 100 percent fresh air on every floor creating a sustainability and lowering the energy requirements of any building in the united states or the world. [ applause ] so thank you, mark, for helping us on that and i think that we have been in this community since the late 70s and we've developed some 9 million square foot and it's wonderful to be part of the pride of san francisco, but also this tower will be part of an initiative of our country which is to move closer and into pacific. i don't know if you know it, but

this will have almost a not quite a twin, but in hong kong, the hong kong monetary authority, you will have 2 towers by cesar pally looking to one of our major initiatives of our country in the next 15 years which is the pacific. so, we will be the brother of the sister in hong kong. so i want to thank each of you for the help and the journey that we have been on. i would like my son, jeff, and jim, the ceo of the west coast that have endured many battles. we share

the property, share the privilege with boston properties and thank you for the opportunity to develop such a wonderful high quality energy efficient building that we are going to be so proud of. thank you for the opportunity. [ applause ] >> thank you, jerry, very much for those comments. now our final speaker is zuckerman. a man who needs no introduction and a man who i have a tremendous amount of respect for and incredible inspiration to me. he has worked his entire life in numerous capacity to make this a better world. a publishing magnet, he's the chairman and editor of the new york world

world -- report and a regular commentator on the mclaunch group. the council or foreign releases and washington for studies and strategic studies and vice-chair of the international peace institute. he's also the vice chairman for the public schools and a past president of the board of trust ee financing for the cancer center in boston. he has helped in many areas in journalism and many others. he has led the company to success

after success. having known embarcadero since 1999, now not only the property, but the san francisco business times reported that properties as san francisco and boston properties has emerged as san francisco's biggest office developer. we thank boston property for paying san francisco such a huge compliment. we welcome zuckerman for this project and thank you for this project and thank you for all you do we look forward to working with you in this partnership. [ applause ] >> thank you very much. i speak here on behalf of boston

properties. i think we are looking for very much to expanding the company's name to boston san francisco properties when this the building is finished. it is no great challenge to be difficulty for me to stand here and express a lot of enthusiasm for it captures the of the things that means most to me in life. one is, i am an urban alcoholic. i love city life and anybody who loves city life cannot help but love san francisco and everything that is happening here. i love to work with great people and jerry heinz for those of you who know him, know that he fits into this category, if you think this is the tallest building west of the mississippi river, jerry heinz is the tallest developer from the western canadian border. i think it's terrific to be able to put together the

vision that he has brought and the work we can do together. i want to say that this is not an accident. you need urban leadership to do that and you have that in the city with the mayor and maria and with the supervisor kim. it just does not happen by accident that you are able to bring as many good people together and as much in the way of financial support in order to backup your dreams. i think what we have sure something that shakespeare described in a very good way. everybody wishes to have this kind of a project take place in this kind of a city and show the kind of negligent for -- energy for this city can have. we are thrilled to be here. it is not easy to do these things. you have to give birth to the deed itself. it's one thing to talk about it, and another

thing to have it. it's this city that makes that possible. we are just thrilled to be a part of it. thank you very very much. [ applause ] >> thank you, it's an honor. now i believe we have the check presentation. i will let mort do the honor. would you please come up and the mayor and supervisor kim. >> i did not say that this was the painful part of the process. [ laughter ] >> mort will be paying the

rest. [ laughter ] >> so, the check is made out to the transit joint powers authority. he said do we have to give you the 57 cents? yeah. we do. we raised the money penny by penny. thank you all very much for coming. thank you all to our partners who are here, the business community, the building trades, the laborers, everyone here, our former partners mayor. thank you. i now welcome you to a light reception. thank you very

much. sorry, i forgot the most important part. we are going to break down. we are going to do this. [ applause ] [ cheering and applauding ] [ cheering and are going to do this.