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Speaker 3: First, I want to talk to you about real estate, obviously,
Speaker 3: because that's you know, you always get your bread and butter.
Speaker 3: I would like to get an update, if we can,
Speaker 3: on the project that you've been working. I know it's
Speaker 3: been a long time coming with this New York skyscraper situation.
Speaker 3: Right we met you three years ago and you were
Speaker 3: talking about it, and I saw you in the breakfast
Speaker 3: club and you was talking about it recently. So what
Speaker 3: is the I just want to know, like, what is
Speaker 3: the hold up on this? Is it on the funding side,
Speaker 3: or is it on the political side. Is it tenants?
Speaker 3: Is it residential neighborhood issue? Like, what's the what's the
Speaker 3: roadblock that has been holding up Aspiration Tower? And that's
Speaker 3: going to be the largest, if built, the largest building
Speaker 3: in the Western Hemisphere, I believe, So, yeah, what's the
Speaker 3: hold up right now?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it'll be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
Speaker 4: It'll be the first major development, I mean well, first
Speaker 4: skyscraper in the United States, and first skyscraper and then
Speaker 4: in New York City to be built by black developers
Speaker 4: and a black contractor. The hold up is not money.
Speaker 4: When we submitted our proposal, we submitted proof of financing.
Speaker 4: So it's all political. It's the Governor of New York
Speaker 4: making a decision that this is something that they want
Speaker 4: to go forward with. It was a competitive process. We've
Speaker 4: responded to that competitive process. This is a second time
Speaker 4: around for it. The first time around, Andrew Como was
Speaker 4: governor and we were close to they were close to
Speaker 4: making a decision. He ended up leaving office. Governor Hoko
Speaker 4: came in and assumed the role as governor and as
Speaker 4: a result of that, she went through and they canceled
Speaker 4: the process and redid it. We resubmitted to that and
Speaker 4: we are waiting for the State of New York and
Speaker 4: the Governor's office to make a decision on the selection
Speaker 4: of the developer for that project.
Speaker 1: So when you're taken on a project of that mapping two,
Speaker 1: obviously this is this is this is a big project.
Speaker 1: You still have things going on throughout the cities. How
Speaker 1: are we delegate in the task? Right? We build an
Speaker 1: the team around it. How we double it because it's
Speaker 1: not like you're waiting on this and you stop and
Speaker 1: obviously this is a whole, but the process doesn't stop.
Speaker 1: You're still looking for opportunities to out. So what is
Speaker 1: that process like for you guys?
Speaker 4: Well, look, we've got we're very active developer, pretty robust.
Speaker 4: We've got projects in Boston, we got projects and other
Speaker 4: projects in New York City, Charlotte, North Carolina. We've got
Speaker 4: Phase one of our Brooklyn Village development, which is in
Speaker 4: Uptown in the Business District, and we are just finishing
Speaker 4: up site work there and look forward to starting to
Speaker 4: build the first building there, which will be a residential development,
Speaker 4: high rise development there. And then we've got projects in Roley, Durham, Nashville, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia,
Speaker 4: and then of course Miami and uh and so we're
Speaker 4: doing those projects, working on those projects while we continue
Speaker 4: to make a decision to get wait for the state
Speaker 4: to make a decision. And we've a assembled our team.
Speaker 4: I mean, we've got the design team, the contractors, and
Speaker 4: the key members of the team to go and execute.
Speaker 4: But what would happen is if the governor and the
Speaker 4: State of New York ended up selecting us to develop
Speaker 4: on that site, then we would go through the pre
Speaker 4: development work of getting you know, building you know, permits
Speaker 4: and constructions drawings done and that's going to take us
Speaker 4: about a year and a half to do, and then
Speaker 4: we'd start construction and the building would take us about
Speaker 4: four years to build, maybe a little bit longer, and
Speaker 4: it would be the tallest building in the Western hemisphere.
Speaker 1: That's a quick pot. Is there a timeline on a
Speaker 1: decision that that she like has to make it in?
Speaker 1: How does that work?
Speaker 4: Well, they have a process with deadlines. All of those
Speaker 4: have come and gone and we've met those, but they
Speaker 4: don't have a process for making a decision. They had
Speaker 4: an estimated time to make the decision and they have
Speaker 4: passed that time period. And so we're waiting to see
Speaker 4: what the state is going to do in terms of,
Speaker 4: you know, making a decision on the selection process.
Speaker 5: I'm a two parter for you. Number one, what can
Speaker 5: we do as an audience to help push this project
Speaker 5: to the finish line? And number two, but you're managing
Speaker 5: a portfolio so big, like, how are you assessing risk
Speaker 5: and what are you doing to mitigate risk from any
Speaker 5: potential losses from anything that you have in your current portfolio?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, one of the strategies for us is
Speaker 4: that we really we focus very heavily on the public
Speaker 4: profit space. And so what that means is that we're
Speaker 4: acquiring properties from states governments and city governments around the country,
Speaker 4: and we don't take down the land and tell us
Speaker 4: time to commence construction. And so what that means is
Speaker 4: that we com mitigate a lot of our risk in
Speaker 4: terms of owning the land and so forth, because we
Speaker 4: don't pay for it and tell it's time to commence construction.
Speaker 4: And so that's really how we mitigate our risks. So
Speaker 4: we're only going forward when you know, to start construction
Speaker 4: when the economic environments are correct, and so we're i
Speaker 4: mean Charlotte's a very strong market, you know, interest rates
Speaker 4: and making it a little tougher than it would have
Speaker 4: been before. We love Atlanta, great market there, strong market,
Speaker 4: strong mayor there who's doing a good job. So, you know,
Speaker 4: cities like that. I mean New York is a bit
Speaker 4: more challenging in some spaces, but you know, new construction,
Speaker 4: you know, is pretty attractive right now. So I mean,
Speaker 4: so we look at based on what the opportunities are,
Speaker 4: but we mitigate risk by not starting construction on projects
Speaker 4: until all the things are lined up financially, and we
Speaker 4: don't we normally don't own the land until we're ready
Speaker 4: to start construction, So that helps us mitigate our risk.
Speaker 3: And what was the second part of our question and
Speaker 3: how can we help?
Speaker 5: Yeah, anything that we can do in terms of us
Speaker 5: collaborating with our audience help push this for because I mean,
Speaker 5: this should have been completed already. So is there anything
Speaker 5: we can do to help you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean one of the things that can be
Speaker 4: done is that you all can and people who are
Speaker 4: supportive of what we're doing, they can, you know, make
Speaker 4: it a point to reach out to the state, the state,
Speaker 4: the governor and their assembly members and the you know, Senator,
Speaker 4: state Senators, the President of the Senate and Andrew Stuart Cousins,
Speaker 4: the Speaker Carl Castey, and then the Governor and irony
Speaker 4: the irony is is that both leaders of the Senate
Speaker 4: and the State Assembly are black, so they should be
Speaker 4: pressing this agenda forward as well. And then also Eric Adams,
Speaker 4: who's been very supportive, to continue to encourage him to
Speaker 4: you know, aggressively advocate for this project. One of the
Speaker 4: things that we're also doing is Reverend sharp And has
Speaker 4: been trying to build a civil rights museum in New
Speaker 4: York City to showcase those who have contributed to the
Speaker 4: civil rights movement throughout our country's history, especially during the
Speaker 4: nineteen fifties, nineteen sixties and beyond, and has not been
Speaker 4: able to find a home. So we are building a
Speaker 4: fifty million dollars you know, museum for him at the
Speaker 4: ground level and the first few levels of affirmation Tower
Speaker 4: for the civil rights museum to be there. We think
Speaker 4: the symbolism behind that is incredibly important. We should build
Speaker 4: our own civil rights museum, and so we're doing that
Speaker 4: and spending our money to do that. So supporting Reverend
Speaker 4: Sharpton and encouraging Reverend Sharpton to push hard. I mean,
Speaker 4: this is a you know, if we want to as
Speaker 4: the old saying is, if you want to go fast,
Speaker 4: go alone, you want to go far, go together. We
Speaker 4: need to do this together. It's amazing to me that
Speaker 4: in all of New York City's history there's not one skyscraper,
Speaker 4: not one built by a black developer, owned by black owners,
Speaker 4: built by a black construction company, or designed by a
Speaker 4: black architect. I mean, that is incredible when you think
Speaker 4: about that in this point in time, and that's where
Speaker 4: we really need to be pressing hard is on economic conclusion.
Speaker 4: Which is why I admire what you all doing, which
Speaker 4: is pressing forward an economic attenda, teaching our community to
Speaker 4: be financially literate, teaching our community about entrepreneurship, supporting and
Speaker 4: encouraging entrepreneurship. This is an example of entrepreneurship. And it's
Speaker 4: a three billion dollar project and a billion plus of
Speaker 4: that is going to go to black owned businesses. So
Speaker 4: there's a lot of economic opportunity for everybody. And so
Speaker 4: we just got to press hard on this issue with
Speaker 4: regards to economic inclusion. And it's the politicians that are
Speaker 4: going to make this decision.
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