Our countrys markets. [inaudible] industries us real estate market, the california real estate market, is one of the hottest fields by chinese invested lots of jobs. Lots of Job Opportunities are also created because of the investments. In 2015 chinese buyers surpassed canadian buyers as the biggest buyers of us homes. The report of the Chinese Investment in us real estate published by asia society and the Rosen Consulting Group just last may showed that over us 110 billion were invested by chinese into the us real estate between 2010 and 2015. More than one third went into california. A lot of it went into San Francisco so mayor sleight again, congratulations. [applause] it is wellknown that San Francisco is a city of [inaudible] hotspot of investment in a new center of renovation. Its name in chinese means [foreign language] old gold mountain. Which is derived from the gold rush and with good hope of fortune creation. Today we are here to witness groundbreaking of the ocean wide center. When it is finished it will be the second [inaudible] building in San Francisco and it becomes a good model to show the city prosperity and the relationship with china. Today, when i entered this i saw the model. This model, i think it is wonderful. It is a welldesigned. The architecture is very beautiful. Mr. , at the beginning he would wanted to build the building, the height, much higher. It would be the tallest building in San Francisco. But during the negotiations, there was a restriction because another building in the contract said in the future goal buildings should be taller than that one. So he was unable to build the tallest one could i said, it is okay. The second one is good because china is the second largest economy in the world. [laughing] [applause] really its a good model to show the citys prosperity and the long relationship with china. Ocean Wide Holdings is a famous private enterprise in china with several successful real estate projects in toptier cities like beijing, shanghai, etc. I believe that because of its personal expenses and [inaudible] in the Quality Control measures, ocean Wide Holdings will be able to build ocean wide center has a High Standard landmark of San Francisco to benefit the local community. Congratulations, to ocean Wide Holdings again. We wish you a very successful business in the future. Thank you, all. [applause] i always learn something when i hear counsel general speak. Always. Thank you. May i please invite supervisor jane kim to the stage, please. We are so delighted to have you here today. [applause] good morning. When i was running for office in this district in 2010 i would meet with residents in this neighborhood and they would ask me, when is the promise of the infrastructure and the parks and the office and the restaurants and all the many things that the city had promised us, when is that actually come to fruition . When i began office in the midst of the recession along with mr. Mayor ed lee we had seen the slowest rate of construction and development at the city at that time. We were excited to have the groundbreaking of the transbay terminal, where for the first time, many construction workers were finally going back to work. I dont think many of us couldve predicted what would follow in that year. I think that over the last six years i been really proud to preside along with the mayor over one of the fastest growth and about here in San Franciscos history. Every day im driving through San Francisco, walking through, and seeing the skyline, it is outstanding how much this neighborhood is changing. And how we are finally bringing the promise of jobs, housing, Affordable Housing, parks and open space are actually coming to reality. I want to welcome ocean wide get becoming a partner and neighbor in this what i call the newest and most exciting event in San Francisco is the transbay terminal. Now ocean wide had many challenges in coming to a city like San Francisco. For those of you that too Many Development projects here, you know there are already obstacles if youre already a wellknown player and even a homegrown developer to getting approval and the support of our communities here in San Francisco. But ocean wide doug in very quickly and they said, we want to build a project as soon as possible. I was a bit skeptical. Im still until i started chen wu in any chain at every event i went to. [laughing] i was started wearing they were trying to run for my seat. [laughing] they were every nonprofit banquet at arts galleries, visits, united players are clubhouses Youth Violence prevention work in the south of market and i knew they were serious. They were serious about being a new neighbor, demonstrating their commitment to wanting to be a longterm partner here in San Francisco. So this project comes as many think besides being the second tallest building here in San Francisco skyline, they have made a huge commitment to open space here in San Francisco. I want to thank ocean wide for working so closely with our park and rec commissioner alan welcome in Chinatown Community develop center to make sure that as we build the high density neighborhood but we also ensure there is healthy and active open space for residents and workers to plate and recreate injured because its not enough that we live and work oh we also need to be able to recreate in the city that we love to live in. Second, without any type of the goucher should, ocean wide came to my office and said they were committed to doing 33 Affordable Housing onsite. I have to tell you, that made my job incredibly easy. So i want to thank ocean wide for that commitment as well. Her charming ensuring we build in San Francisco we are ensuring a diverse neighborhood in a proud that here in transbay neighborhood that we will be building to 35 affordability and ocean wide is a big contributor in making sure that workingclass and middleclass families will be able to continue to live here in San Francisco. Finally, we would not have a great city if we do not invest in the arts. So i want to thank you for working with one of our key museums and arts organizations here and with linda harrison, director of the new museum of African Diaspora by making an investment through your arts the to ensuring that we are a city that is truly great because we love our arts and we invest in it the right way. So ocean wide, congratulations. Welcome to the neighborhood. I look forward to working with you or counsel general, thank you for talking about the importance of building these types of relationships. We dont have the type of High Density Development that china does. Not just one city but multiple cities. Throughout the country and so we are excited to have you a partner here in San Francisco as we continue to build. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you supervisor kim. Next i like to invite jeff heller of heller manner to provide some background in this process. [applause] thanks to everybody. I really am pleased to be here with so many friends and colleagues. This is a great day. I thought that the best thing i could do for all of us is to talk about how we got to today. This is a wonderful day and people talk about how some years ago this project started and all of that good this project and the very existence of the transbay district started 20 years ago. If that had not happened none of us would be here today, none of this would be happening. It happened because San Francisco realized that true sustainability was High Density Development around transit, and that shifted the city into understanding the need for high density corridor like this and it moved the politics to make this possible. Then from mayor brown to our mayor lee now the evolution of the plan took place , in a really started in about 2006 im sorry in 1996. So about a decade after that, the plan once again changed and developed to the plan that we have today. The heights and densities and the linkage of that to the transbay terminal became the core piece of making this all possible. That was the only path for which this could have happened because the thing that helped that was that San Francisco changed from a local provincial pretty tourist city to a global city. The global city also became the piece that drove this and this process to where we are today. So in about 2012 the plan gets approved. In 2012 the site that we are on was a complete real estate disaster. It was broken in two parts. There were holdouts. There were lawsuits. There were people fighting about this, what was the largest plot in the transbay and png and michaelwere able to somehow pull off the impossible and assemble the site into existence. Without that, we would not be here today. Then, after that, png directed a design process and i went to foster and partners because we are friends and we are colleagues for a long time. It was the natural choice. We think totally eye to eye on the philosophy and so in 20132014, the plan and the concept developed. Then after that, in 2015ocean wide comes and sees the opportunity and they see the vision of probably the greatest private project in the city and the headquarters for them in the United States. In doing that, theyve created this fantastic edifice in this fantastic plan. You know, i cant think chairman Lou Ann Chen Wu enough for bringing vision, professionalism, social consciousness and the overriding sense of quality to this project. It is clearly the finest project that most of us have come in contact work will. So with that, im going to introduce stefan billings, from foster and partners and i just want to say, on his coming and please, seven, [applause] that the wonderful part was that from day one we simultaneously totally got about the potential of the site. The way to do this site and execute on it and it has been wonderful, smooth, fabulous commendation of effort and almost effortless getting to today other than the really hard work. [applause] thank you very much. That was very kind. Hon. Mayors, counsel general, chairman lou, ladies and gentlemen on behalf of foster and partners, im and Norman Foster one 420 cannot be here today because he is not well. I would like to thank you for having us today and also tell you how honored we are to be part of this incredible Transbay Transit Center develop plan. We think it is one of the worlds unique projects in pushing high density and mixeduse next transit send it very much some thing that we believe in as a company. I would like to thank our client ocean wide especially chairman lou, for being incredible artist with a fantastic look working relation with mr. Wu and the team and it is a true collaboration. Everything we do is not us. It is all part of a much bigger piece. Hopefully, it will create an amazing project. I think Ground Breaking ceremonies for us architects is an incredible milestone because you realize its real. We are now going to do this building which is an extremely exciting get other working with something for three years you know projects can stop and start and when the groundbreaking starts and the diggers arrive on site, you think this is going to happen. So designing a tower in San Francisco is actually fantastic but also daunting task. The horn of the most beautiful cities in the world with an incredible skyline that everyone knows all the way around the world. The wood is very smug very difficult and its a huge responsibility to get it right. We have actually had some incredible dialogue with the city with mayor lee with john hwang rahaim the Planning Department have been exceptional partners, again in working with us on this project. It is all in the theme of teamwork with the city with the client with how you create a project which i think in this case would truly be for the people of San Francisco. The big image on the sign about the urban room that some of you have mentioned, to us is probably one of the most important achievements of the project. This will be a room that on a day like this, or on a hot day, everyone in the city of San Francisco can gather and enjoy lights. It is actually a little out ways, here you just see one of them. On that site is another one which will still exist good they will help these unique visual network of alleyways get even better than it is right now. Because i think it is very unique to San Francisco with its big urban grid and has a unique Little Network of alleys which we love right from the very beginning. I think would offer great facilities for the neighborhood. You will have restaurants. Youll have events. Not different programs. The of a lush landscape and art and i would think it will truly make life in the city a tiny little bit better. You obviously have to mixeduse towers. That is very important to realize how the mixed works that youre the Mission Street tower with the hotel, the waldorf hotel, which are very honored that they are part of the project. And beautiful residential units and then you have first street tower, with its incredible external structure which again is mixed use with offices, with an urban room at the base offices and then residential units at the back. You have all heard sustainable is an important part of this project. I think it is the only way to build buildings in the world and im very proud that ocean wide are also 100 behind creating such a Energy Conscious and sustainable building. Platinum rating for a superpower is actually not that easy to achieve. We worked with great engineer could again the teamwork. We have a huge team of extraordinary consultants. The external skeleton of this building, which is a unique feature of the first street tower, will make it 30 less waste. Total use 30 less material than other towers. Which makes it a lighter tower which ultimately, in this city where you all know the ground conditions are not the greatest in the world for towers, is very important and in this particular case, the piles of this tower will go down 400 feet, all the way down to the bedrock. That means its the deepest bylaws anywhere in the west coast in america. So with everything that technology and all the brains and working on this project no, this should actually bewell hopefully, the best. I think it is important to mention as jeffrey said, a very close collaboration with heller manners. Interior designers and i think at this moment i need to thank our team. The of an extraordinary teamwork on this project as the spokesperson you realize you are just a voice with our many people dedicated their lives to this project and work day and night with us. The model makers or whether it is the people designing the interiors were the rest. It is a fantastic team effort and thank you all very much. I think it is also very important to mention we breezily been joined byweb core fantastic contractors. We worked to some degree further down in the bay area and i think we are all looking very much forward to a fantastic team effort for the next phase of this project. I would like to now just to tell you how privileged we are to be part of this effort and we are humbled by people who say that the design is adequate and we hope at the end of the day that this will be a worthy addition to a wonderful city. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you. Most important, please sent our best to laura foster but im glad to get out of it now we can sense is bill we have a foster [inaudible] in San Francisco to make sure the project is big bill well we knew good content im delighted to invite jeffrey hoops [inaudible]. [applause] so some people call this a rainy day. As a builder in San Francisco, because a beautiful day. We call it heavy fog and we tell our craft workers, work fast. Get it done. I name is jeff hoops and im in the chairman ofbuilders based here in San Francisco. Im representing the swinton and web Core Organization today and am very excited and honored to be part of the ocean wide project team. Its an amazing team thats assemble to build this project. First and foremost, i want to extend my thanks to ocean wide and the chairman lou for their strategic investment here in San Francisco. This is one of the largest, in my estimation, and possibly the largest private Real Estate Investment in San Francisco in downtown. Its amazing what is happened here. Theres also two people i really want to thank for being part of this team and they probably dont want to be recollected im going to recognize them so theyll probably get embarrassed but chen will and kevin lee had been here from day one working diligently, hard, and ringing it to the start of construction which doing that in San Francisco, as supervisor kim said earlier, is difficult sometimes but we are here and jen will and kevin will have done a superb job and i really appreciate that. [appla