>> i want to welcome to grand opening of 921 howard street. this beautiful building right up here. this is 18 stories of hundred percent affordable housing. happens to be the tallest affordable housing in san francisco. our tallest building in our portfolio and it is a modern sleek building and really appreciate everyone who was involved in the process and all the people who live here. we will celebrate this accomplishment today, but we can't do this without acknowledging the work and the collaboration from some of our partners here. this includes sharmain curtis

from curtis development [applause] the mayor office. swinerten construction. bank of america. [applause] techs. cal hsa and many others. [applause] traditionally we hold a ribbon cuten ceremony when the building is fully occupied. that means today we have 203 families and individuals who are living in this wonderful building right here. they are close to public transportation, shopping, restaurants, and cultural institutions like museums and yerba buena gardens. that's the heart of what we are here to celebrate. at this time, i want to invite my co ceo katie lamont and sharmain kurting to come up and talk about the story how we got to this building and what is special about 921 howard.

[applause] >> thank you so much roxanne. i'm so pleased to be standing here besides sharmain. many may xoe, i worked at tndc a long time and started leading the housing development department and this development has been germinating for a long time, and sharmain was my partner in navigating our way forward to get to this place today and i'm so grateful she is our codeveloper on this project. so, little about the story how we got to this place today. as many know, soma had a lot of market rate development and are a lot of deeply affordable development, but little to no moderate income development, and the time we were conceiving this development there was a lot of call for more moderate income housing and 921 howard speaks

to tndc and kurting development perseverance and commitment providing affordable housing as a broad range of income levels. this unique we serve folks with extremely low income and moderate income supported by the california housing finance agency. it is also located across the street from the 5m development and benefits from all of those e outdoor amenities. contributing to a balanced community. we are so grateful to the mayor's office of housing and community development for steadfast support over the years as we pursued upzoning through the central soma plan and assembled financing. we are especially grateful to the planning department, including steve wartime now moved on and doing great things at had state legislature. through the central soma plan, the department helped us to substantially upzone this property. it was zoned to support 175 homes in a 8 story building and today we

are delivering 203 homes in the first phase and the second phase on the side of the street that fronts howard is scheduled to be developed with another 230 homes. 921 howard is also one of the most cost effective affordable housing development s in san francisco. it has a cost effective design, thank you perry architects and developed total development cost 10 percent then typical affordable housing and this despite the fact it took 10 years to assemble financing. part of how we were able to minimize that acquisition carrying cost is fortunate a philanthropic tech donor wanted to support moderate income housing in soma and he chose to invest through us and through the san francisco housing accelerator fund. so, we are grateful to many lenders that helped along the way, including the housing accelerator find and the very beginning, enterprise and

state supported transit oriented affordable housing program. grateful to construction and perm lender to bank of america who made the bigest loan taken out and tax cut investment. grateful to cal hsa to support the middle income component and grateful to the mayor office of housing community development. with that, i like to introduce sharmain. [applause] >> thank you katie. so, katie gave all the facts, which are really good and important facts, especially around the middle income part of this project, which i'm passionate about personally. i will go more philosophical. it has been an honor and privilege to work with tndc the past decade plus. we won't say exactly how many years and to partner with them on the development of this amazing project. particularly grateful to katie and to

don falk who trusted me to lead the charge when was hard to see light at the end of the tunnel because we had a lot of ups and downs and setbacks, but we persevered. lord knows we persevered and as the kids like to say these days, we been through it. it was worth it to get to this moment. i love we celebrate key mile stones throughout the journey starting with ground breaking where we do the symbolic turning othf soil and topping off ceremony to write the name on the steel beams the top beam and finally the grand openingism each is opportunity to recognize the small army of people and it is. if you are not in the business it is hard to describe the number of folks involved. getting a building built. including all the construction workers. hundreds, if not over a thousand people. it is just a lot of work.

i especially love the grand opening because this is what it is all about. this is why we do the work, because there are right now over 200 households living here. folks who may struggled to find affordable housing in san francisco over retain affordable housing in san francisco over the years, and now they are in a safe place where they have stable affordable housing really in purpitutety because that how is the city structures the project. each building feels like a miracle, it really does. it is just-the feeling of getting a building built, whether you are building with own hands like mike and swinerten folks or us behind desks and on calls it an amazing feeling of accomplishment to make something where there was nothing. i think housing and affordable housing and sufficient supply of housing is really kind of one of the fundamental issues of our time, and so we

did a lot more miracles like 921 howard to happen. i just want to shout outs too, i want to say names because i worked in the trenches with these folks. planning it department, without them we wouldn't have [indiscernible] the swinerton team, sarah, austin, gabby, samantha, mike, shawn and lovely boss lori who will speak in a minute, jaxson and ester who manage on the tndc side. perry architects, dirk is here, steve is on vacation. amazing architects and highly recommend them and they had a great team of engineers and consultants who worked to make this happen. our construction manager andy larsson isn't here today. bruce and amy are here.

they helped so much with permitting and also just great people to work with. and last but not least, people who are not here, our financial consultants attorney california housing partnership [indiscernible] they are behind the scenes and unsung heroes of the work of building affordable housing in the bay area. ment with that, i'll turn it over to supervisor matt dorsey. [applause] >> thank you so much. it is a honor to represent district 6. this is a neighborhood where the housing we are building is really something that is a blue print what san francisco will look a lot like in the years to come and now we have a housing element where we are on the hook and we made a commitment we will produce 82 thousand units of housing over the next housing element cycle, and this is an example of the kind of housing we need. it is an honor torupt

represent a district 21 century urbanism could be. there is a lot to thank and dont want to get in the list and there is one person i want to thank, mayor london breed to the leadership she is bringing to housing in the city. two years ago i joined the board or little over 2 years and elected in the november election but there was a early election of 1 mayor breed interviewing people who would be her appointee. i had a lot of opinions what i wanted to do involving police staffing and recovery from drug addiction and issues and i'm a member--i thought i was a housing nerd and london breed was putting me through pacing where i stand on this and what--this is somebody who really sweats the details on housing and cares about it because she

knows what a big difference it can make. in the life cycle of projects, i always love to come to these with ground breakers and different kinds of things. for those who have been with me at ground breakering, i always complain if i don't get a hard hat and shovel and vet. i'm a gay supervisor so i want the construction gear. i like the drag and whole thing. in terms of the thing we are here to celebrate, i was a great point made. today we are celebrating there is more then 200 families who lives are improved because of what we are doing. this is probably the most important thing we can celebrate is what we have accomplishing and let's keep doing it. thank you to mayor london breed for her leadership and continued leadership. thank you everybody for your partnership on this and a lot has to do with the financing and for that i'm happy to introduce from cal hfa, the recent winner of the [indiscernible]

sacramento business journal--i was saying earlier, i will look on google and find a obscure thing to say, so please welcome, irwin tam. [applause] >> wow, that is-thank you so much. i guess i do appear on google. [laughter] i am excited to be here. i am excited to have taken the s on the subway and walked two blocks to get here and stopped for a cup of coffee and that goes to show how important housing is and how important affordable housing is that is being developed closer to public transit and amenities we have here. as supervisor said, i'm irwin tam, director of financing. we heard about the facts. we heard about the philosophy. i guess i can talk about the numbers. people are excited about that. but first of all, cal is the

state affordal housing lender and under leadership of tina hall and [indiscernible] cal hfa is delivering housing for low and moderate income californians state wide by working together. when of the organizations we work closely with is the mayor office of housing and community development. not only on this project, but also work in conjunction with apple and the mayor's office to on the bond recycling program and to date delivered additional $250 million tax exempt bonds, which otherwise would go unused, accept for this partnership. we are really proud that relationship with the mayor's office of housing community development. this project wasfunded through our mixed income program and again, to date, we have delivered over 320million of subsidy funds across the state which

resulted in all most 10 thousand units for low and moderate income californians and this is a prime example of the inclusive community we are trying to create for again, low and moderate income californians. we would again like to thank the mayor office, tndc, bank of america, and the state treasurer office for this financing scr i like to turn it over now to lori dunn. i didn't google you before hand. [applause] [laughter] >> good morning. my name is lori dunn the vice president division manager for swinergon in the bay area. this has been an amazing journey. we feel fortunate to deliver over 200 units to downtown san francisco. we are a community builder and we really appreciate the

opportunity to not only construct a beautiful building,s but to also be giving back to the community. we know how important this project is to tndc, and to mayor breed and we consider ourselves very lucky to have been a partner. we see this project as a very successful project with tndc, curtis development, perry architects and all our subcontractor trade partners. again, thank you for the opportunity. we are so excited to be able to deliver this beautiful project. [applause] >> hi, everyone. liz from bank of america so honored to be here today and without fail, no matter how chilly it can feel the sun always comes out for these amazing opportunities. bank of america founded in the great city of san francisco in 1904 and our purpose is to help make

financial lives better. wree do by supporting the building of inclusive communities and creating economic opportunity for livable neighborhoods just as we are seeing here today with this glorious new building. last year our community development banking group invested $7.85 billion across the united states creating housing units and economic opportunity. these funds created over 13 thousand units of affordable housing and homes for families, seniors veterans formally homeless and those with special needs. lf bank of america is proud to be a public private partnership with tndc, curtis development, mayor office and city and county of san francisco and cal hfa. i will thank all the same people we are thanking today. the mayor office, cal, tndc, kurting development and bank of america

teammates, many of whom were able to join me today. thank you all. [applause] >> it sounds we are still waiting for the mayor to arrive and luckily, i have been planning to talk to you about very important state and local measures that we like you to support. [laughter] as we all know, it is critically important to couple both local investment and state investment for affordable housing like 921 howards. while we have a state representative here, thank you irwin, we want to express how grateful we are to the state, the legislature for putting prop 5 on the ballot. prop 5 for those who don't know and hopefully learning more up to november 5 will be lowering the voter threshold for local bonds for things like affordable housing and

infrastructure like schools, parks, open space, public health libraries and public transit. the state has been doing its part to make it much easier for localities to raise funds to support affordable housing so please do your part and vote for prop 5 on november 5. this along with previous state enabling legislation that allowed for the creation of regional financing authorities like the bay area housing finance agency, which serves the 9 county bay area, really set the stage for another important measure you will see on the ballot in november known as regional measure 4 and also known by people in our field as the bofa bond, the bay area housing finance agency. this bond will raise $20 billion, billion dollars, 2.4 for the

city and county of san francisco. so, please we need voters throughout the whole region to vote for this measure, and we need all of you to please do your part to speak about this to your friends, family and networks and are to participate in which ever way you can to support the passage of the measure. it is critically important to our ability and city of san francisco as a whole to fund the pipeline it has and see and develop new affordable housing throughout our community. that's what i got. [laughter] [applause] thank you. we are grateful you are all here. we hope the mayor has her opportunity to thank you all and you have the opportunity to thank her and we thank you. again, i will--roxanne to send you off into the-- five minutes?

oh, okay! what? that's what we hear. the pole toss is coming. this will be my--matt and i were talking what he learned and his experiences to position him to be ready to be a supervisor. i don't know if you want to share your story, matt? [laughter] i'll share. i'm just practicing, killing time. matt was sharing if it is okay, that he spent some time as a city attorney spokesperson and had the fun job addressing the public about the cases the city were not winning. i can appreciate it. it is a hard job to be a supervisor. not everyone is always happy with you all the time and you have to navigate you know, all those constituencies. and i am now public speaking

more then i have in the past and learning how to roll with the moment. i will say one other thing and then i appreciate-tndc is celebrating one of the biggest fund razors of had year. we have two big events. this is called the pool toss. it is held september 26. it is an iconic san francisco event. it is real ea fun. it is at the phoenix hotel a lovely institution in the tenderloin you should support. it has a great cocktail bar and pool and invite friends there when they come to down and been a supporter hosting this event. they are our neighbor. we are developed 555 larkin. 108 homes serving families in the tenderloin and they have been a great neighbor and partner to us as we move through the planning and design and then execution that building. we had the privilege opening that

building earlier this year, and the pool toss, we have a web page and you can donate. i think we are up to 5 or 6. and so rebecca foster who leads the housing accelerator fund and i mentioned her was involved in supporting this project is one of our tossees. yes! tickets and sponsorships are available. [laughter] yes, there is actually a lot of food from local businesses. much that food is actually doinated to us i believe and we have a fun cocktail bar, but just drink one or two. dont get drunk on the job. you can check out our website. tickets are available now. [laughter] perfecto! do you think she wants to hear my bofa

spiel? maybe i'll deliver it as she walks in. redo over? okay. great idea. roxanne will do that. >> a lot of us officials dignitaries are up here talking but i want to recognize some of our staff that are back here in the back. raise your hands if you work at this building and work at tndc. we appreciate each and every one of you guys. yes, thank you. [applause] you're what makes this happen. after it is built and we have the ribbon cutting you make the building success-foot successful so thank you all for coming. jackson is here too? thank you. shrea. yes. i think the mayor's here now. i'll stop.

>> yes, to echo what roxanne said, the development team can build a beautiful building what matters in the lives of the people that live in it is the experience every day with property management and services and pleased to introduce to you, mayor london breed. [applause] >> alright. i made it. better late then never, right? i got to say, when i am able to come to events like this, whether it's ground breakings or ribbon cuttings, what people don't always see is all the hard work that goes into making something like this possible. all the various teams and organizations to put the financing together. the hard work that goes into making sure neighborhood preference is a priority and project like this we are very intentional about outreach to insure families struggling the

most have access to a beautiful place like this. it is really very rewarding to walk through these doors, especially after being at the ribbon-i mean the ground breaking on the site and lori from swinerton was there with along with other folks. supervisor, i don't think you were there yet. we were mising you though. we were there breaking the ground and talking about the significance of what this will mean for families and really trying to open up the pipeline for families who are just a little bit above the low income status, but like middle income and we are making tad bit too much to qualify for affordable housing. to have this project go up to 120 percent ami is truly incredible and really exciting, and this is one of the biggest projects i think we ever built

from mohcd. thanks to the voters for passing all most a billion dollars in bonds, we were able to use $39 million dollars and state and other resources. the other person always at me with these various openings and ground baking is liz from bank of americaism thank you so much. [applause] for being here, and for your continuous support. but i am also very excited about welcoming and finally having someone an african american led and owed business, a woman in particular, sharmain curtis from curtis development because that often doesn't happen with projects like this. it is so meaningful and thank katie and tndc and so many who helped put the pieces of the puzzle together

to truly make this project not only success, but a inspiration for the people we are trying to serve. it is amazing building, a beautiful neighborhood and what we are doing with downtown, bringing more people and families to downtown and making sure that there are amenities and support and are there is housing security. that's what this project is about. that's why i'm so happy to be here adding more housing to our portfolio. we need more and more and more, and now with not only sb423, which will make everything that is following whatever the rules are as of right, so we can get more housing built, but this state regional bond, what is it called now? bofa. what number is it? four. that is going to deliver even more money, so we can do more projects like this faster. we have a number of projects

that are waiting in line for these resources and can you imagine with over 50 thousand units already approved in san francisco, 50 thousand housing units in the san francisco pipeline what that would do fwr housing affordablet in the city! it would be a game changeer and that is what we are doing with new housing policies and getting to yes and making magic like this project happen so happy and grateful to be here. thank you to all involved and congratulations to the new families who have a opportunity for a safe affordable place to call home. thank you. [applause] >> starting with 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! [cheers and applause]

honey. good evening. okay. i call this meeting to order. charles good evening. this is a meeting of the san francisco commission on the environment. the date is monday, august 26th. the time is 5:06 p.m. please note that the ringing and use of cell phones, pagers, and similar devices is prohibited. please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of anyone using a phone or similar device. public comment will be available for each it