especially dana and thank you all very much. [ applause ] we would like to thank the community for your support. we want to encourage everyone. thank you. [ applause ] >> i believe in the housing development and the biggest affordable house is renovation ever taken by the city of san francisco. the credits roll and roll. hundreds of people,

that's what it takes. everybody contributed and everybody played an important role and we were all led by marlin -- [ applause ] everybody working with project knows how complicated it was and how difficult it was. the development team and activities staff, i have a gift to offer tomorrow. [ applause ]

there are so many green -- to the building. [ applause ] this building, this project what's happening here is so exemplifies for that many of you knew him. before i introduce our former board member to share a few words. i want to address your attention to this screen where we put together a small tribute.

[ applause ] .♪ i'm here to talk about

kelly. i served on the board for many years. i saw these pictures. [inaudible]. my favorite story -- [inaudible] he is -- he selected them. he called them pennies from heaven. now when i find pennies, i say, it's for kelly because i know they are coming from him. when you find pennies from heaven you know

kelly is watching. kelly firmly believes that home matters. it was granted to him. [inaudible]. with i came on the -- so i watched this and i think if this is an honor that we can -- the fact that we are continuing to do what -- it does so well. who would have thought we would be doing this today. who would have thought we are making such a difference. home matters. it's so important.

howard is very enthusiastic and contagious. [ applause ] so, if you met him and you wanted to be around him and you were doing this you wanted to be with him. you should try it. that's how -- because it was fun and we were doing good work. it was kelly's calling to work with housing. he really believed if he could stabilize a person they would grow. everybody in this room is a tribute to that and this is really especially in incredibly

wonderful. i didn't know this -- we were traveling in another country and i found a bunch of american pennies on the ground. i realized people telling me -- pennies are very special and it takes a lot of pennies to do something like this. it starts with one penny to make something wonderful like this for a lot of people. thank the staff because every single person makes a different. thank you very much.

>> i would like to thank you for i'm maria, executive director of the transit joint powers authority. i can't tell you how excited i am to be here on this special occasion. congratulations, everyone, we did it. before i jump to remarks i wanted to recognize senator boxer along with senator feinstein and pelosi has been extremely helpful to helping us where we are today.

also from railroad association and secretary los angeles -- we received grants that has the project under construction today. thank you for all of your support. [ applause ] >> as everyone knows six years ago we held an international contest to design the property where we stand today. the architects won that competition with a design for the transit center that stands as a model of elegance and functionality. 3 years ago we broke ground for the construction and now it's in full construction and you can hear the cranes next to us. now we have a record land sale of $191 million of ceremonial ground break which is the

tallest tower in the western mississippi. mr. pell i has designed the transit tower and will highlight the importance of public transit to the region and state of california. as you know, the pros -- proceeds of the sale will help construct the transit center and allow us to keep thousands of jobs to our disadvantaged communities and veterans and women and also allow us to keep our mentor ship for our youth. that's what the transit project center is doing. the development of the tower, has committed to build i am improvements with the transit center and you will see

mission square which will serve as the primary entrance to the square. it will allow public access and providing a meeting and resting place for travelers and workers and residents in the area. the workers in the tower will have direct access to the rooftop that will allow benefits to work in the neighborhood. we congratulate them to the project and welcome them to our community. [ applause ] i would now like to introduce the man who has been essential and continues to be vital to the project, ed lee, our mayor of san francisco. mayor lee firmly believed and supported the project since it's inception when he was at the department of public works and then as a city administrator.

for that, i'm profoundly grateful. without your support we would not be here today. thanks to the plan to promote transportation and development. another infrastructure for sustainable development. mr. mayor lee. thank you. >> thank you, maria, you know, i want to begin by thanking maria because she's now on her third mayor. and if you are someone who is heading up such and important project for the city and you have to transition every time a mayor comes in, one has to appreciate the anxiety, the twist and turns,

the foresight, the confidence that she must continue instilling in her small staff, but more importantly in the investor community because this is where it's at. and if she doesn't have a good story to tell, with a lot of confidence, then her job is going to be even harder and the economy did not help the last 10 years to make that story any better. so with that, i want to just give a hearty thanks to maria's leadership for the last decade-and-a-half for putting together this project and her continued perseverance to make this happen. today we celebrate the sale of the land for the transbay transit tower. to the entrance transbay transit

authority, for the first time i met mr. heinz, i can going to hang out with them more because i have heard a lot of stories between you that will help me run this city better. i will say that when this transit tower is complete, it will have the impact of transforming our city skyline with the tallest structure west of the mississippi and chicago. i'm about to leave for china tomorrow, and i get to go to china and tell them we've got the tallest building west of the mississippi, what about you? they are probably going to tell me they have tall buildings there as well but we at least have bragging rights. the state of the art,

sustainable features, a plan, 1.4 million square foot office tower, developed, owned and operated by heinz. they are reoccurring the renounced architect. this is going to bring 142 good construction jobs in san francisco. i want to thank everybody that has been involved in this. as you can see the former transbay terminal site is exciting for me. when i was by willie brown, former mayor, i remember cleaning out behind the greyhound station and moving people along inside and outside

that terminal and now to know that demolition is complete, it helped people get jobs particularly because of the funds made available. there were 55,000 hours of labor all done without any accident or injury in that demolition. 90 percent of that important work was completed by the 9 counties bay air -- area labor force. that's incredible for the work force throughout the bay area. we today celebrate it's anchor in all of it's whole region. it will be really what will be built in the near future to serve our city and our region. we have always believe that a transit center is a critical anchor for the jobs in the city. it's the best future for

our cities, great transit access, dynamic mixed urban centers, a place for innovation and inspiration. we truly believed that over two decades ago when we started this. within one block of this transit center, there are 4 office buildings under construction, about to begin construction and taken together with today's announcements, i think it's safe to say our bet was confident. this new transit center is only the beginning of what will be happening in blocks surrounding this site. last year the board of supervisors an approved the plan for an area around downtown strans san francisco

to be the center of our region to go to right way, responsibly, providing jobs and embracing existing transit services as well as our future high speed rail and respecting today's resources and climate challenges. we have to realize the way to grow in the future is to accommodate jobs so people can use public transit, walking and bicycling to get around. a new and large part of what it's all about is this new transit center, public amenities and private buildings expect to generate at least 25,000 job years of construction employment alone. when complete, this new district will accommodate at

least 27,000 permanent jobs here in our city. the office space provided for this plan will help ensure san francisco remains the knowledge economy center for the region, if not nationally. this new downtown district will accommodate 6 million square foot of new office space, new housing, 12 hundred affordable new house, 100,000 square foot of new retail space and of course a network of new and walkable streets. it's an important part of how we are paying for the critical infrastructure. many of you were hurt when agencies

were limited in the state. but here in this center, this plan em ploys the majority of the streets and parks and affordable housing by the value of private investment and using the power of tax increment financing. the value of the public land and the targeted developer fees and helping us create this vision without resorting to overburdening our general fund or new taxes. when this terminal was originally built in the 1930s it was a growing project. i'm confident the growth san francisco will continue to grow with a new transit center and downtown district. i also want to give a

great shot out to president obama, it was really his funds that helped us kick this off and pelosi and feinstein and boxer and their on going constant up to date support. at the state level, governor brown has been a very strong supporter and leaders of both houses, president stein house and president per ez have shown strong leadership. this check is much more symbolic of many many other checks that have come as a result of investor confidence in the city. i want to thank the labor for being part of all these projects and the business community for working closely with us and the

transbay joint powers authority for being consistent entities here to steer through all of these years of changes and economic turmoils. i want to thank our friends at boston properties for being great anchors to this city. congratulations and thanks very much. [ applause ] >> thank you, mr. mayor. we very much appreciate your remarks. thank you very much. it is now my pleasure to introduce a very important woman, not only to this project but to this new district. supervisor jane kim. supervisor was appointed to the board of supervisors, she is currently a member of the finance and budget committees and shares 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, un