00:00Lower Manhattan has not simply been rebuilt over the past 25 years. It's been reimagined.
00:04Its population is more than double. Tens of thousands of homes have been added,
00:08and the neighborhood has evolved from a largely 9-to-5 financial district into a place
00:12where people live, work, study, and visit. Matt DiLiberto has a unique perspective on
00:17that transformation. He's the chief financial officer at SL Green Realty, Manhattan's largest
00:22office landlord. He's also chairman of the FDNY Foundation and a longtime firefighter himself.
00:28Matt, really appreciate you being here. You know, we started off this hour kind of talking about
00:33some of the great new architecture that's down there from the World Trade Center site itself,
00:37but everything around in that community. I think something about some of the projects that SL Green
00:41has been involved in, like 100 Church Street and everything going around 33 Beekman and 180 Broadway,
00:47etc. Talk to me about, from the perspective of a real estate company, why there was even a
00:55commitment to try to do anything down there when there was still so much uncertainty. As we heard
00:59from Ed just a little bit earlier ago, this idea of so much fighting over, you know, how to sort
01:04of
01:04get that neighborhood back up and running. Sure. Well, over decades, one thing that New York City
01:09has proven to be is highly resilient. People want to be here. People want to work here. So I don't
01:14think
01:14there's any question in anybody's mind that that area would be rebuilt. It was more a question of
01:19how it would be rebuilt and how long would it take to rebuild it and who would rebuild it
01:22and what it looked like when it was done. I think looking back 25 years, which seems like only
01:27yesterday, it's remarkable what it has transformed into. It is a vibrant residential area while having
01:34an office component and a memorial that is strikingly beautiful and poignant. We've had several
01:41projects down there, more on the residential side, because that is what, you know, that area really
01:46transformed into. But the city needs to be vibrant in all areas, not just Midtown, not just downtown.
01:54So when it takes a hit somewhere like it did 25 years ago, there was no question it would be
01:59rebuilt.
02:00But there's also this idea that we talk about just the mix in that neighborhood. And we also,
02:04let's not forget the arts down there with the Pearlman Arts Center and a few other things that have
02:07that have also popped up. And that sort of became a template for a lot of other neighborhoods that
02:11weren't even directly impacted by 9-11. But this idea that maybe we shouldn't be segmenting off
02:17neighborhoods, just, oh, this is our financial, this is our office district, this is our
02:21residential district, et cetera, et cetera. And no question. The city has seen, Manhattan has seen
02:25a broad-based revitalization over the last 25 years. We're focused today, rightfully so, on the
02:31downtown area. But if you look at what's happened on the west side or around Grand Central, where a lot
02:35of our
02:36properties are located, and up Park Avenue, there is no area, now Hudson Square, there is no area that
02:41hasn't really seen its next coming. It has all been revitalized. And that's because, again, people want
02:47to live and to work here. So it needs to be at the cutting edge.
02:50Well, you mentioned Grand Central, so let's go there. There's been a ton of development, still a ton of
02:53development. Anybody walking around there, you have the new J.P. Morgan building just being built,
02:57and of course, one Vanderbilt. And I know your foundation, the FDNY Foundation, has had this,
03:03what, the climb to the summit. Yes. Basically, you climb up the steps of One Vanderbilt, which is a
03:10relatively new building, 90-plus stories here. Talk to me a little bit about that. So, you know, when we
03:15came
03:15out with One Vanderbilt, the concept of One Vanderbilt, east side rezoning, which was the ability to build
03:22larger buildings in an area that had restricted them previously, was in its early stages. One Vanderbilt
03:27was actually the first project built under that new zoning. We built up 1.7 million
03:33square foot tower at the corner of 42nd and Madison, which wasn't an area that people would
03:37have expected what is now the highest value office building in the United States to be.
03:41And I think that really was a catalyst to the east side rezoning moving forward. A lot of other
03:47projects. You mentioned J.P. Morgan's building. There are some other large projects going on.
03:53One Vanderbilt was the kind of inaugural large-scale project.
03:56But it's funny, kind of side there, people didn't think that something like that could command
03:59that type of value. I mean, it's literally on top of one of the busiest transit hubs
04:05probably on the east coast. It proved out that thesis. I think there was some doubt as to
04:11how valuable being on top of mass transportation really was. Interestingly, the COVID scenario was
04:19one, obviously, we didn't have in our head, but it was a catalyst to One Vanderbilt and its leasing
04:23because wellness, proximity to transportation, convenience, those types of things came into
04:29play. And all of a sudden, people were migrating to these hubs and particularly, which is, which
04:34is, while we're talking about lots of new developments, still fairly limited, new construction.
04:38I do have to ask you, and this is more, I guess, you put your firefighters hat on, and this
04:42is about
04:42the safety of skyscrapers overall. Obviously, after 9-11, there were a lot of questions about
04:47the ability to evacuate a 100-plus story building in a time of crisis. I know the technology has
04:54changed, and I know that we've learned a lot from our tragedies. So now for those folks who are living
05:00or working in these types of tall buildings, are they safe? They are, and there is no safer building
05:06when it comes to high-rise buildings than New York City. Interestingly enough, New York City hosts,
05:11because it does have the most high-rises and the most advanced fire department in the world,
05:14it hosts a high-rise symposium for firefighters all over the world who will go through different
05:22types of high-rise buildings to look at the different safety features, technology that's
05:27involved, whether that's wider stairwells, because we saw the need for stairwells 25 years ago,
05:33you know, those types of things, ventilation. The world looks at how New York is redeveloping
05:39its high-rises and is showcased in that way.
05:42I mean, your foundation, I mean, you raise a lot of money to provide equipment, technology,
05:49training for firefighters. I do have to ask, though, why do we need a charity to do that?
05:53Should that money not be coming from our tax dollars from the government?
05:56It's a really good question. When people hear of the FDNY Foundation, they say exactly that.
06:02Well, doesn't the government just provide everything that the fire department needs?
06:04It's the fire department. And the answer is, unfortunately, no. There is a limit to how much
06:10the city provides to the department. And the vast majority of that goes to the fire trucks and
06:16ambulances that you see on the street and the personnel. But there are different technology
06:21advances, training, and public safety education for the public that don't get funded by the city.
06:28And that's where the foundation comes in. We are here to fill the gaps between what the
06:32department needs and what the government can actually fund. And if you look at the high-rise
06:37symposium or other training opportunities that the department has, they're funded exclusively
06:43through the foundation. They wouldn't exist without the foundation.
06:47You want to go back to Lower Manhattan. I should point out, it was years before I could even
06:51walk anywhere around Lower Manhattan. Even when the 9-11 Memorial opened in 2011, it was years
07:00before I ever walked past it. I don't even mean just look in and walk past it. It was hard.
07:05I've spent a lot of time down there now. I've seen the memorial. I go to the Perelman Center,
07:09Oculus, Brookfield Place, et cetera. We're going to hopefully, knock on wood, 2031, get the last big
07:16tower up, the American Express Tower. What is that going to symbolize when we finally have that ribbon
07:22cutting and we see people going back to work and back to maybe homes in that building?
07:27I think it's exactly where we started, resiliency, right? 25 years ago, you see the pictures that
07:33you're seeing for the last couple of days reminding us what happened. You wouldn't have imagined seeing
07:38what you see there today. The last tower being built, that is quite an accomplishment. It's quite a
07:45testament to the desire for a company like Amex to want to be downtown. It's a vibrant area now. It's
07:53an area
07:53where you weren't walking in 2011 and there are tens of thousands of people walking every day down
08:00there and kind of in awe of what's been rebuilt. Yeah. And the way that everyone involved is able
08:07to achieve that balance between remembrance but also kind of pushing us forward. I really appreciate
08:11you being with us, Matt, the CFO of SL Green and the chairman of the FDNY Foundation.
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