our pockets to help get that done, because it will get done. miracles happen completely, not just partially. that i want to thank and recognize susan, because i know the transition from who we knew to be the face of the corette foundation happened years ago. she has picked it up with the greatest spirit, the greatest honor that can possibly be produced, the spirit of the corette foundation lives today through susan and her con stant donations. she was one of the very first when i was interim mayor and i said i need some of the philanthropic aid and i talked to william helman and what he did and with the fischers and sorensteins and all the great families that were part of our history and i want to create the next generation of philanthropic san francisco-loving people that we

can continue the miracles for everybody. susan has been at that part of our philanthropic san francisco lovefest for many years and with that i would like to introduce susan corette, the corette foundation, the great miracle worker. [ applause ] this is wonderful. this is really exciting. it's really important to introduce the koret foundation family. first of all our executive director mr. jeff, would you stand up please. [ applause ] . hiram, also.

and then the next to you, that beautiful lady, gabrielle and my niece, kim. [ applause ] thank you. good afternoon. thank you for the opportunity to participate in this great milestone. i am happy to be here. st. anthony's has a special place in my heart, because it represents the vision of my late husband, joseph koret. joe was born in poverty. he -- his wish was for no one

to go hungry in his beloved san francisco community. joe would have been so proud to support this wonderful building that will provide so much care for so many people in our city. for me, st. anthony's also represents the three c's. care, community, and continuity. i bring you many congratulations from all of the members of the board of directors of the koret foundation and our very best wishes for continued sucrose in -- success in the future. thank you. [ applause ]

>> i saw merl and larry, if you want to join us. as we said, this building is complex. and it starts with the funding. it will get more complicated with the construction pretty soon, but it has really been an unbelievable group effort to pull together the different funders of this work. we heard about the koret's foundation amazing con tributionss and i know there have been so many amazing contributions on the st. anthony side. for an affordable housing project for this it takes incredible people and we start with hud, who supplied over $20 million to make this project possible. larry ferguson is here, the director of the hud 202 programs that gets the senior housing funds and an important thing to know about the hud 202 programs not only do they

provide capital, but a rental subsidy. so seniors on social security, or even less income don't have to worry about whether they can make a $1,000 rent payment. they pay 30% of whatever they can pay and the federal government helps us make up the difference, so we can keep people housed. there are folks out there who understand why this is not such a great investment. so i want to take one second to tell you about this. we know there that we can save money to medicare and medicaid by housing seniors in this setting. so it's an unbelievable investment and one that i hope we'll keep on doing. [ applause ] i don't have time to thank you everybody at hud, but without your commitment to make these things real we couldn't get them done.

we thanked the mayor, but the mayor's staff at the mayor's office of housing, one of the humblest public servants you will ever meet -- olson has been doing this i think since 1906. [ laughter ] olson has been doing this forever. and along with a lot of other people in the city, we not have the history of affordable housing in san francisco without olson lee. he has been tireless. he worked harder to make this happen than anyone that i know and committed than any human being i have met. i want to thank olson and the rest of the mayor's office of housing and the staff for their work on this sfwater. [ effort. >> [ applause ] >> again in the obscure world

of affordable housing, leadership pelosi has been a huge champion with senator feinstein in preserving the program. we know we have a huge champion in you as we look at tax reform, we're confident that you will be with us on that issue. we get investors to buy the tax credits and that helps to pay for the building. it's a very complicated transaction and todd is here representing the foundation. they have brought in equity investment of over $1.2 billion. to give you a sense of how important they are and how important the program is. thank you.

[ applause ] you know in san francisco, everything is green, but liz helps us go greener. and so they have provided an important pre-development grant to help us understand how to green this project and make them the most environmentally sustainability program. they are a huge partner with us nationally and with all the communities and the work that they do across the country. so thank you stephanie and liz. [ applause ] we have two different banking partners on this project that have combined to lend over $22 million to the construction loan on this project. citibank and silicon valley bank. merl is around. former mercy employee, also wonderful human being. merl is also hiding in the background because he is also humble. these two banks have been huge

up the supporters of affordable housing over the years. [ applause ] silicon valley bank i think we want to mention also the silicon valley bank has been instrumental in helping us secure affordable housing program grant for this project from the federal home loan bank system and thank the federal home loan bank and anita adams and her staff and still con valley bank for making that possible. it's a huge grant and a huge part of closing the gap. so thank you. [ applause ] i have been given the inevitable task of thanking everyone. the department of health, they understood probably earlier than any other health department in the country that housing is health. and so they have been a huge

part of the solution to homelessness in san francisco. here as they do in other buildings around the city, they are providing operating and service grants so that as people come into this building off the streets, we're able to help them stabilize, afford the housing that they are in and move on and reconstruct their live as tyrone mentioned. again i want to thank the department of public health. [ applause ] i'm almost there. we have lots of neighbors. if you have ever been next to a construction project, you want to make sure you thank your neighbors at the beginning. they may not want to hear your thanks, but the boyd hotel, st. boniface, hibernia bank, the academy, senior action network, san francisco action

ministries, cc y, and tenderloin district and father harden. [ applause ] since i'm up here i want to thank the mercy staff. i think there are probably 25 mercy staff distributed throughout the crowd. we do everything together. no one person is responsible for any one project, but some who have played extraordinary roles in this project. i want to thank the mercy staff who did so much. last, but not least, nothing happens in san francisco without dedicated community advocates. for this building to be here for st. anthonies to be here and for the work that mercy does there are people over the years that make a commitment to making stuff happen. they are the voice in the back of the room and remining you

over and over again that we have a commitment to make something better. mercy doesn't often name your buildings. sometimes they have glorious names like 122 golden gate, which was the name of this building up to now. it's very poetic. but we really wanted to do something to commemorate the incredible contribution the tenderloin community and we want to name this building after vera hale, who is here on stage. this building, once it's opened will be named the vera hale building. for over 20 years vera has been a tireless advocate around senior issues, around economic security issues. she has worked

at curry senior center and i have a list of the boards and commissions she has served on. i will read them to you because it's a longer list i heard many in my life. advisory council to aging and adult services, the mayor's long-term care coordinating council, the san francisco interim support task force and coalition of agencies serve the elders, and i'm sure will there are a hundred other that vera sat on. the list of things that she has worked on goes on and on. to me vera symbolized what san francisco is about. her work and the community she fought so tirelessly for and on top of the dining hall, this corner will forever be st. anthony's dining hall, but the same piece that is mercy housing will be known as vera

hale housing. [ applause ] so close. i have a long list. i'm on page 3 there is only seven more. [ laughter ] i'm kidding. i'm kidding. it does seem that way. i know. we want to thank our events sponsor, our general contractor. [ applause ] the hilton, citibank, banc of america, and barry will say more about them in a second. i'm sure i have forgotten something and i apologize in advance, but in the interest of time i will turn it over to barry. thank you. [ applause ] >> yes, to wrap this up here, two lendors on st. anthony's side, the low-income investment fund, nancy andrews is here and the bank of america elizabeth

shooten, i believe is here and we want to thank them both. because st. anthony's helps the low-income housing fund get started back in the '90s, we were going to have nancy say just a word or two. nancy. [ applause ] >> thank you everyone and it's just fantastic to see so many san franciscans turn out for this groundbreaking. i am nancy andrews. i'm the president and ceo of the low-income investment fund. we are a san francisco-based community capital non-profit organization and our role in this project was to provide a $10 million allocation of new markets tax credits. you heard leader pelosi speak about the importance of this program. every year the new markets program provides billions of dollars to projects similar to this one. and it's a very important part of the fabric of what moves

communities toward in today's worldful. we're incredibly proud to have had the chance to support this program, to support st. anthony's in providing meals, services and hope to san franciscans. but it's especially heartwarming to us to be able to collaborate and to bring housing and services together and the collaboration between mercy housing and st. anthony's. we would like to thank banc of america, who was our capital partner in the new markets program and again, we're simply thrilled to be part of this. it speaks perfectly to the vision that many of us share for how to move families and communities forward. i have to say that i for one, if this is what the groundbreaking is like, i am incredibly excited to go to the grand opening celebration. thank you all. [ applause ] >> thank you, nancy. i would like to make sure that we thank the staff of st.

anthony's, who is here in force today. raise your hands and thank them. [ applause ] a couple of other grantors to st. anthony's, thanking jack fitzpatrick, who is here. stephanie and the koretfolks that have already been mentioned. we're actually going to do a groundbreaking. so i would ask those involved on that, that is everybody on the stage pretty much to start moving into the pit. so if you can stand up and start moving.

>> great for see you all here, i am the director and it is a profound pleasure to welcome you all to this ground breaking this morning. we are thrilled that you could join us, this is a defining moment in our history and it is great to have you with us. and i have to say before i begin, that the first person to arrive this morning, for the ground breaking was one of our trustees, brooks walker. and books arrival reminded me that 20 years ago, almost exactly, this was in another ground breaking on exactly this site. and we are here 20 years later and we are expanding upon that remarkable step that the museum took in 1995. we moved here to third street from the vaness location and from the city hall location. and we were immediately

pioneers in this neighborhood. obviously the south of market neighborhood was not what it is today. and very quickly pioneers became anchors. and that is quickly became a gathering place for anyone interested in the visual arts and who was a residents of san francisco or lived in the bay area or came here. over the course of 18 years since 1995, it has grown, i can only say exponentially in term of our programs, family visits everything has doubled and tripled in size. and our exhibitions reflect the diversity and range of this community and regularly travel around the world literally. so today, here we are in 2013, and we are on the cusp of another remarkable change, when our expansion is complete, it will begin become, not that it was not been, it will become fundamental as a component of the cultural life of san

francisco. our building will more than double our current gallery space and we will offer many art filled and also free to the public spaces and galleries for art, many versatile spaces and a building that will feel open and integrated into the urban fabric into the south of market and south of mission neighborhood as it possibly can, and also offer dramatically expanding programs for cool children and i want to pause for a second on that because this is an important point, earlier this month the board announced that we will create a $10 million endowment to create preadmission for anyone under of the age of 18 to come to the museum. and now if there is one question that i received, pretty much on a daily basis

and a question that i received more than any other question that i am asked, is this, two years of construction, sf 1 was going to be closed at third street, where will sf moment go? how will the community continue to experience the contemptary art. we mean it seriously that it will be figuratively and literally on the go. if you have noticed on the paper the remarkable exhibition will be able to mount on the field sculpture and just a few weeks we will be opening the first of many partnership exhibitions with the partnership exhibitions around the corner from sf moment. i dare say, i dare say that the period of time that we are entering dao into here, the next couple of years, to culminate will be the most exhilarating and exciting into

the entire history of this museum. and i could not be more exciting about this and i think that the board and the staff and the community shares that great excitement. at the forefront of all of this work and we could not have asked for a better leader at this time is chunk shwabb the chair and i would like to pass it now to john. >> good afternoon, good morning, everybody. what an incredible pleasure for me to be see this modern art building over here, we are going to surround that with a little bit of a veil and that will be a permanent structure right there. so we always want to take the new ideas in. don't we? and it is really a thrill to be here for this ground breaking, and it was a twinkle in our eyes a few years ago and i think to have this moment come and now we got to build

something that is for sure. we can't leave this hall here or we would be embarrassed to say the least. it always seems to be and we all, i think, love living here in san francisco. in the bay area. and because, we always seem to be way ahead in so many ways and things whether it is business, art, or technology or progressive social movements for sure that originate in san francisco. it is a great place to have leadership about where we are going as a civilization in the future, this museum in many ways expresss that and offer its to all of our members and our public. that stuff is always been at the forefront. i think of so many different movements. and ahead of its time. the new works that we have done.

and new idea and different ways of looking and seeing things. that is what this whole institution is about, and we will be doubling that capability and so it will be more and more fun for families and kids and so forth to come here and to be a part of that. and really thrilled to have that happen. but i want to also thank the leadership of the museum. getting that twinkle in their eyes that something in 2009, and it just took a lot of asking people to help out with this, but there was a certain person in my life, don fisher who we were very close, don and he sort of put the challenge up to me and if we could really do something fantastic for this city. we all sort of got together and i said, don? and in his final hours, i said don, you got the guy here who is going to make this challenge a reality. and that is really what we have

got going on here and so thanks to don, you guys really made this challenge. [ applause ] and we have to say, also, the community itself, our council people, supervisors, our mayor, our chief of police, the chief of the fire department, just like the fire department now, there say brand new one just a couple of blocks over there and so he is really happy and the whole team is really happy. so he is with us today also, but our trustees thank you for all of your participation and fantastic and i just can't thank enough of the people who have been here working hard with me, side by side, and i have another fellow that i would like to introduce, our mayor ed lee is a fantastic guy and what this city always needs to have, just a guy that is going to make things happen. not all of the fan fair and you

just see how this whole city is sort of coming to life. it is going to be probably in 20 and whatever, 16 we, have museums coming and it is unbelievable. mayor ed lee. [ applause ] >> thank you, chuck, and i was just about to rec meant chuck that you and i and charlotte schultz buy the shoe polish and in a couple of years put that on and pose as 18 years and we can look a little bit like supervisor kim and get in for free, how about that? >> this is an incredible chuck, thank you for that enter did yousing, and i will be very brief because what i really feel today and in this particular ground breaking is a lot of sweat, a lot of good, hard, work, from chuck, from the board of directors and from

robert and randy fisher. i want to thank you for your wonderful leadership and you have to raise an incredible amount of money for this to happen and it was for a great cause and i go back to our first lunch in, chuck that we had where you explained a little bit about our history to me and i did for you and we both talked about the old friendships that we had and you expressed your friendship with don back and that this what ises partly in honor of that. well i want to also express the city's official thank you to doris and don and fisher, collection and the fisher family for your wonderful contribution for our city. and it is with that recognition that we do this ground breaking, plus a big huge thanks for the new fire station as well. but, as i will look forward to

speaking to the graduating class at lowell high school this afternoon, i am going to talk about this because it is part of what we do in san francisco. it is for our youth, but it is also future looking, and it is about what we all do for our great city and that is what i feel about the fisher family, that you have contributed to our city. and you know, culturally, based tourism is now at about 2 billion dollars of income for the city. and it employs almost 20,000 people and this is what our city does, it celebrates culture and that is what draws so many people to this, and now i think, supervisor kim was so proud of these institutions that are coming into our district and that she and i have joined in so many ground breakings and we celebrate this with a very serious recognition of a people that have done this for us. and so, on behalf of the city and county, and with all of our hearts and gratitude, i want to

thank robert and randy, i want to thank, doris and don fisher, the whole fisher family for the great, great contributions to our city. this is a gift that will keep on giving, and with this announcement for the youth to come in for free when the 10 million dollar endowment, i love anonymous gifts. one of these days i will try to do that myself. but, this is incredible time for our city, but it is one that i think that this is another example why we take the opportunity to celebrate and to thank the people who have led this effort to do so and to just have everyone appreciate life in san francisco is very special. and this is one of the reasons why. thank you very much. maus plause [ applause ] >> thank you, mayor lee, i would just like to second chuck's remarks earlier that the support that we received from the city, from the mayor

on down, has been nothing short of extraordinary, i have to say that it is probably unprecedented in the history of san francisco that we have had, universal unanimous support from staoet and to all of our processes and everything that we asked for it has all happened and it is credit to you and your amazing team. >> you know, about three years ago, we formed chuck and i together formed a committee of our board and staff. to search for an architect for this ex-sxantion what we were looking for was an architectural firm through the work and the attitude through the work through the resume of experience, would express the values that this museum holds and that we want to address going forward, values of openness and generosity and sharing and welcome and transparency. and we also want to have a great building d