Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Attends Groundbreaking Ceremony and Delivers Remarks

October 18, 2016

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you so much, Marc, thank you for your introduction. I want to congratulate everyone. This took a lot of work, a lot of great teamwork – a lot of reasons to be proud today.

Marc, I want to you say to you and all your colleagues at S.L. Green, thank you for the way you’ve handled this development from the beginning. You understood the values of this City and this administration. You understood what it would take to create a development that would really benefit everyone. And you have been true to your word throughout the process, and that means so much to us.

Everyone, please give Marc a round of applause.

[Applause]

Now, from the beginning of this conversation – it goes back almost three years – Marc and I discussed – and so many of my teams – what it would mean to take such an extraordinary site and move it forward.

And Marc’s right, we obviously thought in terms of the, if you will, traditional considerations – the job creation and the space we needed for the future of our economy, etcetera. But we also needed to set a new template for ensuring that there were real positive developments for the people of this City and for our continued effort to ensure that this is a livable city for all.

We had to really think about the people who live and work in this community, the people who take the subway to get here to work. We had to think about the whole situation and how to make their lives better – how to make this development truly contribute to the greater good of the city.

And I want to say that understanding pervaded this process – that commitment from all the partners involved was consistent. And that’s why this was the kind of development that we could believe in and move forward.

1 Vanderbilt comes with $220 million in improvements to Grand Central Station and to the transportation infrastructure of this immediate area, which is going to make a huge impact on the lives of so many New Yorkers, and particularly of straphangers.

This is the kind of development we need that helps us address our core infrastructure challenges, the kind of development that the people of this city could look at and feel very good about the fact that there was something in it for them as well as for the other partners in the project.

It’s going to changes the lives, as I’ve said, of hundreds of thousands of straphangers over the course of a year and so many people who live and work in this area.

And we were very, very clear with Marc and his team that we wanted a provision to make sure that those investments happened and happened in a timely manner. And a key provision of this plan is that tenants cannot move into the upper floors of this building – the most valuable floors, obviously – until the infrastructure work is done that the people need. It’s a fair concept and a balanced concept and something that’s going to help us make sure we move forward all pieces of this plan simultaneously.

You’re going to see that kind of concept in a lot of future development in this city – making sure that the public’s needs are attended to in a consistent, verifiable manner.

And that is something that will allow us the right kind of growth. We need growth, but we need growth on the people’s terms. We need growth that the people of this city can see and believe in as something good for them as well.

And that’s how we will get things done. And that’s how we will move to get things done better and faster in this city at the same time.

I want to acknowledge members of my administration who have played such a crucial role. And this was, as Marc said, a big, ambitious, complicated development. It did have a lot of scrutiny. Again, Marc, I commend you for understanding that that scrutiny is for the greater good, to make sure we end up with something that really works, works for all, and something of lasting beauty that will be a central part of our skyline.

So, I want to thank Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen and the Chair of the City Planning Commission Carl Weisbrod for their extraordinary efforts.

Please give them a round of applause.

[Applause]

Our partners in government who we work with closely on so many of these matters – I want to thank Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Borough President Gale Brewer, and Councilman Dan Garodnick who has put a lot of time and energy into this and other East Midtown issues.

Thank you all. Please give them a round of applause.

[Applause]

Finally, I want to thank the Head of Commercial Real Estate for TD Bank, Gregg Gerken. We love when our Canadian friends come down and give us some of their Canadian wisdom and get involved here in New York City. Let’s give Gregg a round of applause.

[Applause]

And John Banks, the President of REBNY, who has done so much to work with us on important developments like this. John, thank you very much.

[Applause]

Now, look, Midtown East, as Marc said, we have so much work to do ahead and we need development in Midtown East to continue. Our role as one of the great global, economic capitals – that is essential to the future of New York City.

And this project will be a great start in that direction. The modern office space that Marc described, I think is going to be in great demand, and it’s what we hear from so many companies around the country, around the world they’re looking for. There’s, I think, an increased sense and a growing consensus that New York City has just about everything that companies are looking for today and the workforce is looking for today.

I’ve heard so many moving stories – and I speak now from a New York City patriotism – so many stories about employers realizing they need to be in New York City because that’s where so many of the talented people in this country and this world want to be.

So, to make that strength into reality we need the kind of office space that’ll allow us to tap into that growing awareness, and this will be one great example.

TD Bank coming here is a very big plus for New York City – a major corporation coming to New York City in a very large way for the first time. We appreciate that TD Bank will now have this kind of increased presence here.

And along the way to building this extraordinary tower – 5,200 construction jobs – that is good for New York City. Thousands of workers who will work in this building every day, will benefit. 190 permanent union jobs in the building once it is constructed, and, of course, a lot of new tax revenue to allow us to continue to keep this city safe and to continue to make it a better place to live.

Those are all good things undoubtedly. And those are the kinds of things that the job creation, the additional office space to allow us to tap into new development opportunities and to allow us to continue to be a global, economic power, the tax revenue, the union jobs – those things are very good unto themselves, and honestly in the past they might been considered enough to justify this kind of decision. We believe that we need to go farther particularly given how precious space is in this city and how important the decisions we make about land use are going forward.

And this development is a great template because we asked a lot of tough questions and we made a lot of demands of a developer that proved to be an extraordinarily good and consistent partner. We said what is this building going to mean to the people who live and work in the community? What infrastructure will we need to continue to make this part of our city work and to relieve some of the overcrowding that people have experienced on the subway platforms, for example? That’s not good for anyone who lives and works in this area.

What are we going to do as a city and what is the developer going to do to address those underlying concerns?

The $220 million investment I mentioned – as Marc said, unprecedented, and a great example of what we can achieve working together, something we would not have been able to do with public funds given all the demands on the MTA and all the demands on the city, but something we could do through the right kind of development.

Now, I think a lot of people know this – the 4, 5, 6 lines that run through Grand Central make it the second busiest subway station in the entire City of New York, and it will now be completely renovated.

And we want to commend and thank our partners at the MTA because this will be a really great step forward for the MTA. 154,000 New Yorkers a day pass through this station, and they will see this benefit and the change in their lives. There will be an increased number of exits. There will be roomier platforms. There will be direct connections from the subway into the new building. It will ease the flow of movement in the station and it’ll make it easier for people to get on and off trains.

And guess what? That will allow the MTA to run two extra trains per hour, which will help everyone to get where they’re trying to go and will relieve overcrowding on the platform. So, it’s a very virtuous circle.

There’s also going to be a great amenity for folks who live and work in the community. We’re now going to see a pedestrian plaza as Vanderbilt Avenue between 42nd Street and 43rd Street will become open, public space for all.

So, I’ll conclude with this – we’re in an age, again, where there’s been a lot of change in this city. There’s obviously less and less space left to work with and to develop, and people are anxious. It’s understandable that New Yorkers are reacting to all that change with concern. And it’s understandable that there is a certain skepticism when New Yorkers hear promises about what development will do for them, because, unfortunately, too many times, those promises didn’t come to fruition.

That’s why we want to say to the people of New York City – this an example of the right kind of development, and it comes with that crucial qualification that the public good – the public realm improvements have to happen before the upper floors of this building can be occupied.

It’s a perfect example of putting in the right checks and balances so everyone can benefit in the equation.

My responsibility is to keep this city growing and to make sure it grows in an equitable and inclusive fashion.

We are very proud of the fact that right now in the city – and thank you to so many people in this room, this is a statistic you should be proud because so many of you contributed directly to this progress – we now have over 4.3 million jobs in this city, the most in the history of New York City. And that is an extraordinary fact.

I’m very proud to say that in the last two years – 2014, 2015 – almost 250,000 jobs were created over those two years, the most in any two-year timeframe in the City’s history.

That means we’re moving in the right direction. We have more to do, but we want to make sure it’s done in a way that everyone benefits from.

So, we’ll continue to work on Midtown East and other opportunities around the City. We’ll continue to do it in a way that people can have faith in and see the tangible results of improving their lives. And that’s how we build a better city for all.

Thank you and congratulations to all.

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