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. thank you everyone for being here. i'm with the neighborhood development corporation. it is my pleasure to be able to greet you and welcome you to the grand opening of kelly's community. as i was walking in here someone said this is over-the-top. while the name

maybe on the title, this is really not owned by cnbc, this is a community access. we are nearly the stewards of it. i want to thank the opportunity to thank some of the people and the institution who came together to bring this project to fruition and first and foremost leader nancy pelosi. hundreds of construction jobs and dozens of permanent jobs came about because of the stimulus funds in this project. this would not have happened without that and we want to

express our gratitude to our great leader. the california tax committee and it's great leader, bill is here, stand up, bill. please. [ applause ] >> bill is a great public servant. a number of other groups really were critical to the $95 million we needed to generate to renovate this building. the department of housing and community development, the mental house services division and especially that california housing agency. the federal home loan bank through its federal housing program administered and brought to us by silicone valley bank. and

the coordination of supportive housing was special supporters. i want to thank jonathan. [ applause ] . those corporations for supportive housing were social and innovation fund grants and put that together nationwide with one of four projects across the country to be awarded funding through the social conservation fund. thank you jonathan. we have a very special partner, the marry's office is part of every single project that cbc undertakes and in this case the san francisco department of public health is a crucial key part of the project and they will be providing projects for 15 years and beyond. barbara garcia, are you here? thank you barbara.

and i would like to thank one very special person. anyone involved in the project knows what who this is? mark, where are you? [ applause ] i think it was 7 years ago that mark conceived this vision and it really was a vision and he offered leadership for most of the last 7 years solving hundreds of thousands of problems in order to lead the way. so thank you, martin. this community asset exemplifies 3 areas. it was built in 1910 and we have restored it. it helps

make explicit the link between homelessness and shows that housing variable income people is not nearly humane and dignified. it's smart public policy. it is less expensive to keep people housed than to allow them to remain homeless. this is one social problem we actually know how to solve and all it requires is a will to do it, supportive housing work. with that. thank you. [ applause ] thank you. it's my pleasure to introduce the mayor of san francisco ed lee. [ applause ] >> good morning, everybody.

let's me just add my brief congratulations to cnbc, to this wonderful leadership and just a few words of appraise for everybody who has worked so hard to make this 172 unit project come to conclusion and open this incredible center we are in. we are in this fantastic auditorium. we have the atrium. we have it restored and the physical structure we surfaced and all for one purpose. you know, when i became mayor 2 years ago, i asked myself the question, the same question i know brother kelly asked when he first stepped in to provide his leadership into this community. something i know done and so

many others who have worked together, bob garcia and others, how do we bring hope to this city? how do you make sure that we are not just doing the ropes, that we are not building the bricks and mortars but improving the quality of life they have. this project represents that. it began so well with the spirit and the leadership of leader pelosi when she tapped into our monies and provided the additional amount of money. look what it did? it brought so many other institutions an agencies together to figure it out and the housing advocates, homeless advocates together to say that we can bring hope to this community and make sure

this project represented all that. this is what brother kelly was all about. he is to me almost the saint frances of the tenderloin because it was his spirit that had this project. we had everybody's participation to make sure this was done right and well. this is the way we think of quality lives for housing people who both have the alternatives and also, not only housing them, but providing them with the services that they can live and dignify in life because it's never been about the brick and mortars. in this city it's about living with dignity. this is what san francisco is about. i don't care if i'm in ireland or paris france or back here in san francisco. it's about the quality of life we want to live and the greatness of this city

we love to represent. this project does it all and it does it with so many partners who have come together to make it happen and to play in their roles in a concerted effort to say 172 people's lives are about to get the kind of experience that many of us who came to san francisco want. this quality of life, linking the san francisco can be a challenge for many people. the people who live here are the very people with probably know and have seen on the corners. on the tenderloin, the market, hope street. we know their names. we know they didn't want to just go to another sro or be treated from shelter to shelter. they needed the

support. the help, the support here, the gymnasium, the beauty of this building, this incredible goal that we have to house the homeless in a most dignified way. i think a lot about this project as i go through and talk about the staff, talk about the director of hope, talk about where people's lives can be changed whether they are living in sunny veil or this valley and this is where we put all of our values together and take care of people. taking care of people that we are all about here in the center. it's going to be the motto, the grand model for years and years to come. that we'll show case this to everybody, saying, you don't to have just build sro or build

shelters. you can build quality housing so they can transform their lives and see themselves as citizens of san francisco. this is what it's all about and i will continue to thank leader pelosi for it. any other she's battle ---ing battles and it's time this country ends discrimination and we are ending it right here as well. everything we do here is also saying, we take away barriers and prevented from quality living for homeless. this is just another great great opportunity to help people here. i know everyone who has touched this from housing

advocates, to the developers to the architects, working their magic to the contractors whose jobs were tapped at the beginning, who said we are going to get this project done as an example hoff -- how we use recovery funds to the very people today celebrating their lives who have moved in. i want to thank everybody for their wonderful contribution, for their could -- coordination of this. let's continue to do this work for san francisco. [ applause ] >> we would like to this you for your continued leadership. thanks for celebrating and there is more to come in the great city of san francisco. thank you very much. [ applause ]

>> before i introduce the next speaker just for fun. how many people here were members of this? raise your hand. this building has been a part of the fabric of san francisco for a hundred years. louis brown, senator -- from the locker room and frederick kelly had one of his first offices here at the y. please welcome shawn williams. [ applause ]

>> good morning. this is amazing. i really didn't expect all of this myself. i would just like to say, well, i was like one of the first ones to move in here a few months back and born and raised here in san francisco. i really didn't know that i would be able to have a place of my own. especially with the background i have. i have been a drug addict and alcoholic and going in and out of jail through the years. i have been homeless since 1999.