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