Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Someone involved in real estate, energy, farming, ranching, and so
Speaker 2: much more, and is involved in a big anniversary for
Speaker 2: the United States, including a special project on the East
Speaker 2: side of New York City. We've got with us. Michael
Speaker 2: Hirshman is CEO over at Solo Viev Group. He joins
Speaker 2: us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. Michael, welcome back,
Speaker 2: Good to see you. How are you well.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty good, Thanks for asking that. A nice holiday season,
Speaker 3: but back at work now.
Speaker 4: Good.
Speaker 2: Well, you guys are very busy. I mean you're one
Speaker 2: of the largest landowners in the entire United States. You've
Speaker 2: got your hands in everything, energy, ranching, farming, commercial, real estate,
Speaker 2: office space here in New York City. We haven't had
Speaker 2: a chance to catch up with you in quite a while,
Speaker 2: so I want to start big picture and just get
Speaker 2: your thoughts. We're asking everyone about the election, what a
Speaker 2: new administration means for their business. How are you thinking
Speaker 2: about things heading into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Well, we are looking forward to the unpredictable, because that's
Speaker 3: what our new president is. He's entirely unpredictable, and we
Speaker 3: don't know from day to day what's going to happen.
Speaker 3: But we hope that interest rates will continue to go
Speaker 3: down at least for the for the next few quarters.
Speaker 3: And from our standpoint, things are booming, particularly in our
Speaker 3: commercial buildings because we have very high level commercial buildings
Speaker 3: in New York City.
Speaker 4: Top tier, top tier, and make those buildings.
Speaker 3: Those buildings have been doing very, very well despite the
Speaker 3: downturn in commercial real estate.
Speaker 5: So in other words, demand getting the price you want
Speaker 5: in terms of per square footage, like all of that
Speaker 5: is coming through.
Speaker 3: Indeed, Yes, yeah, I mean, we'd like to think that
Speaker 3: nine West fifty seventh Street, which is our main building,
Speaker 3: is the number one building in New York, if not
Speaker 3: the United States. Some might argue that we're number two,
Speaker 3: but I doubt that we'd go any lower than that.
Speaker 4: Well, quantify if.
Speaker 5: You can as much as you can, because we love color.
Speaker 5: We love the commercial real estate spase and talking about
Speaker 5: it office demand in particular, as you know the last
Speaker 5: couple of years, coming off the pandemic, everybody is talking
Speaker 5: about those properties that are in trouble. What has office
Speaker 5: demand been like, and especially we've seen a lot of
Speaker 5: finance firms moving further and further south to be near
Speaker 5: Grand Central Park Avenue. Is that taking demand from them?
Speaker 5: Is that helping you guys?
Speaker 4: I think it does help. Look, we're still there's.
Speaker 3: Still a lot of folks that are hurting out there,
Speaker 3: both not only commercial residential. From a homeowner standpoint, right,
Speaker 3: we know that there's a lack of affordable housing, not
Speaker 3: only in New York City but frankly of course the nation.
Speaker 3: But we do believe that this administration is now setting
Speaker 3: out on the right track to make it easier for
Speaker 3: developers to develop housing, particularly affordable housing. And we expect
Speaker 3: the commercial boom to continue because so many people are
Speaker 3: coming back to work.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: We just talked about JP Morgan this week. According to
Speaker 5: some sources that they aren't going expected to say, everybody's
Speaker 5: got to be back in the office five days a week.
Speaker 5: But I am curious, like, you know, what can you
Speaker 5: tell us about office demand specifically for nine West fifty seven?
Speaker 5: So strong, stronger than it's been, or what can you.
Speaker 3: Tell us stronger than it's been? The pickup began really
Speaker 3: the last half of last year. The first half was slow,
Speaker 3: but the last half was booming and it's continuing into
Speaker 3: the new year as well.
Speaker 5: And is it financial?
Speaker 4: Build Our building is on nine West, which is our.
Speaker 2: Primary modernist skyscraper.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's that building was built in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 3: Incredible and it was the first sloped office building.
Speaker 2: Whenever I walk by, I look up at it, I'm like,
Speaker 2: how is it? How is it doing that?
Speaker 3: Well? What was interesting is back then all of the
Speaker 3: architectural community thought it was the ugliest building ever built,
Speaker 3: and ten years later it was winning awards.
Speaker 4: But we're ninety seven percent occupied? Wow?
Speaker 5: Is it financial?
Speaker 4: Folks?
Speaker 5: Is it a broad swath of different types of occupants? Commercial?
Speaker 3: Financial firms, high tech our biggest clients, and there's in
Speaker 3: the class A buildings. Frankly, there's just not enough space
Speaker 3: to accommodate their needs.
Speaker 4: At this point, I.
Speaker 2: Want to help our viewers and listeners understand the business
Speaker 2: because we're talking a lot about commercial real estate. But
Speaker 2: you guys are in railroads, you're in mining, you're in farming,
Speaker 2: ag where's the wind and solar energy? Where's the biggest
Speaker 2: area for growth?
Speaker 4: Biggest area for growth? Clearly is in green energy.
Speaker 2: In the hole in your whole portfolio.
Speaker 4: Very much, so, wow, very much.
Speaker 3: We've converted tens and tens of thousands of acres of
Speaker 3: agricultural and ranching property for wind and solar.
Speaker 4: The needs are unending, and.
Speaker 3: Particularly now in the area of data centers, data processing
Speaker 3: centers for AI, there's just not enough energy to support
Speaker 3: the growth in that area.
Speaker 2: The President elect has said he doesn't want to see
Speaker 2: anymore windmills and wind power in the United States.
Speaker 3: You know, he has said that, and he's talked about
Speaker 3: that in the past, But when he's talked about it
Speaker 3: in the past, he often was referring to offshore and
Speaker 3: the fact that it's bad for birds, so he really
Speaker 3: didn't relate it to the need for energy, but it
Speaker 3: was more of an a rights issue.
Speaker 2: So you're not concerned about around that.
Speaker 3: No, I don't think that we're going to see a
Speaker 3: cutback in the growth in green energy at all.
Speaker 5: Well, can you tell us you know, forgive me, I'm
Speaker 5: throwing this at you because it was a story today
Speaker 5: at President Biden the administration. I guess before he heads
Speaker 5: out looking to streamline permitting for geothermal energy developments as
Speaker 5: part of a way to you know, increase the infrastructure
Speaker 5: for AI data centers. What else can you tell us
Speaker 5: about from what you are seeing? Your vantage point about
Speaker 5: those AI energy demands?
Speaker 4: Is it? Because is it?
Speaker 5: Everybody thinking about wind and alternative energy? I mean, what
Speaker 5: else are you hearing on that front? So? Look, are
Speaker 5: you starting to talk about nuclear like investments in nuclear?
Speaker 3: We're talking about small nuclear facilities right now. It's a
Speaker 3: it's a question of what is economically feasible in the
Speaker 3: short term. Right now, we're really talking about wind and
Speaker 3: solar because it's already established. We know the economics behind it. Geothermal, Yeah,
Speaker 3: we'd love to know more about it, nuclear as well.
Speaker 3: A lot of the by the way, a lot of
Speaker 3: these data commuter computer centers for AI, they're being built
Speaker 3: in areas that are not heavily populated. So going to
Speaker 3: nuclear or other alternative forms of energy may not be
Speaker 3: a bad idea because you may not have a lot
Speaker 3: of community opposition.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, So we talked commercial real estate, we talked
Speaker 2: wind energy, and we talked about green energy before we
Speaker 2: talk art. One more area of growth for the company
Speaker 2: going into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Our hospitality group is growing exponentially hotels, restaurants, and of course,
Speaker 3: of course the here in New York, And of course
Speaker 3: we're planning an integrated resort on the First Avenue property,
Speaker 3: which would bring restaurants, retail, casino, twelve hundred and some
Speaker 3: odd room hotel to residential towers. But before that that happens,
Speaker 3: of course, we're going to have something called Path to
Speaker 3: Liberty that which is night That is a Segue's good.
Speaker 5: To ask about the casino bit, but tell us about
Speaker 5: tell us about what you guys are doing this really
Speaker 5: cool exhibit.
Speaker 3: Throughout last year we had an exhibit on the site
Speaker 3: called Field of Lights, and it turned out to be
Speaker 3: very popular. We had over eighty thousand visitors to the
Speaker 3: site and it ended in December, and I was thinking
Speaker 3: about what can we do next while we wait for
Speaker 3: the state to make up its mind as to who's
Speaker 3: going to get these three downstate licenses? And you know,
Speaker 3: I was thinking to myself during this last campaign, the
Speaker 3: word democracy became so politicized it never happened before in
Speaker 3: the history of our country. Who's more democratic? And you know,
Speaker 3: they really weren't talking about the underlying principles of democracy, life, liberty,
Speaker 3: the pursuit of happiness, freedom of speech, freedom of press.
Speaker 3: They were talking about democracy as a form of government.
Speaker 4: Not a perfect form of government.
Speaker 3: And we all know that trust in government is down,
Speaker 3: so trust in democracy.
Speaker 4: Seemed to be going down.
Speaker 3: And then, of course I realized twenty twenty six is
Speaker 3: a very important year here, not only because we're hosting
Speaker 3: the fief of World Cup, but it's a two hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration
Speaker 3: of Independencey it's not workat and I thought, I don't
Speaker 3: see much planning going on across the country.
Speaker 4: To celebrate that.
Speaker 3: So I decided, let's do something we quill to twenty
Speaker 3: twenty six to get people excited about our birthday. And
Speaker 3: so we've gone across the country. I've sent producers across
Speaker 3: the country to interview ordinary Americans about what they like
Speaker 3: about America and what they dislike about America, and how
Speaker 3: the underlying principles of democracy has helped them in their
Speaker 3: lives and in their careers. And we have some touching
Speaker 3: stories to tell. Will have screens, very large screens along
Speaker 3: the path to liberty, which is the path that we
Speaker 3: already had developed along the field of lights ordinary people
Speaker 3: talking about the importance of freedom and how it's helped
Speaker 3: them in their lives. Some of these folks are farmers,
Speaker 3: some of them are firemen. They come from all walks
Speaker 3: of life.
Speaker 5: I have to say this is lovely and I feel
Speaker 5: like it's like every time I get into their cab
Speaker 5: or something or even an uber left. And what's kind
Speaker 5: of cool about it is it's often people who've come
Speaker 5: to America looking for an opportunity or something, and I
Speaker 5: love to get their life stories and they remind us
Speaker 5: of why they've come here and why and they often
Speaker 5: will say, you, guys have no idea, how good you
Speaker 5: have it here?
Speaker 3: Well, it's not only the people that you make a
Speaker 3: very good point, not only the people who come here.
Speaker 4: Money comes here. Yeah.
Speaker 3: If you look at the sovereign fronts along the world
Speaker 3: around the world, whether it's Norway or whether it's the
Speaker 3: Saudias or the Guitar whoever it might be, they're investing
Speaker 3: in the United States, They're investing in New York City.
Speaker 3: They feel stronger about America and America's future than some
Speaker 3: Americans do. Why is that? Is it because people are unhappy?
Speaker 3: And if so, what are they unhappy? About that's some
Speaker 3: of the stories we want to tell, the good, the bad,
Speaker 3: and the ugly.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think it's great and such a part of our history.
Speaker 5: I have to ask you thirty seconds any update on
Speaker 5: the casino.
Speaker 3: So we're really excited about our project, which we're calling
Speaker 3: Freedom Plaza. It's going to provide the community with four
Speaker 3: point seven acres of green space park which is sorely
Speaker 3: needed in that neighborhood, a museum dedicated to freedom and democracy.
Speaker 3: That will also be a community center where the communities
Speaker 3: surrounding communities come together the whole events and meetings. Where
Speaker 3: the casino, which everyone of course is talking about, is
Speaker 3: going to be below ground. We're not bringing a Las
Speaker 3: Vegas style casino with lights and water fountains. It's going
Speaker 3: to be blow ground. And we're doing two residential towers
Speaker 3: which will have over five hundred affordable homes in them.
Speaker 5: Which we've got to wait till July or that's.
Speaker 4: Ever been built on the East Side before, but we're going.
Speaker 5: To wait till July. I think guys what I understand right, Yes,
Speaker 5: Michael Hersman, we got to run. Whish we had more time,
Speaker 5: but thank you so much and thanks for coming in studio.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me and happy New Year do all
Speaker 3: of you. Yeah from Larry David.
Speaker 5: Well said, Well said Michael Hurst, beIN Chief executive of
Speaker 5: Oliviev Group, joining us right here in studio. Thank you, Michael,