From the Ashes – Ground Zero Resurrection, Asia Inspiration

Speaker Series: Martin S. Burger, CEO, Silverstein Properties, Inc.

Breakfast, Wednesday 21 May 2014, 08:00 – 9:45 am, The American Club, Town Club

How Family-Led Silverstein Properties Rebuilt New York City’s Ground Zero and the Lessons it is Applying to China and the World

Event Details:
The Stanford GSB Chapter of Hong Kong is pleased to invite you to a breakfast talk with Marty Burger, CEO of Silverstein Properties Inc. (SPI), the company that has, from the ashes of disaster, rebuilt New York’s World Trade Center (WTC) and brought confidence back to Lower Manhattan and the world’s financial home.

The story of the WTC, and SPI’s role in it are unmatched in modern real estate and urban planning – a compelling public/private partnership that has re-imagined the urban landscape.  A founder-led family corporation story in which Marty, the first non-family member CEO, has played a transformative role. On the back of these lessons, Marty is now leading SPI’s “Chapter Two” of international expansion, applying these insights and vision to what SPI will be Shenzhen’s WTC and China’s rival to Shanghai, the Qianhai Finance Center

Master-planned by Daniel Libeskind, and bringing together some of the world’s most prominent architects (including David Childs, and Pritzker-Prize winning architects Norman Foster, Frank Gehry Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki, among others), today, the WTC is widely considered to have re-invented the heart of NYC’s financial district and is viewed as a clear “win”.

This success, however, was far from certain. The World Trade Center’s re-launch in 2006 ran smack into the turbulence of the 2008 Global Financial Crises, the third major crises of its history, with doubters again questioning the redevelopment’s fundamental viability.  Having acquired ownership of the World Trade Center (WTC) from New York/New Jersey’s Port Authority just months before 9-11, from the very beginning, SPI was faced with extraordinary emotional, legal and financial challenges. Debate about what a rebuilt WTC should look like and even if it should be rebuilt were heated.  SPI itself faced financial challenges. An unprecedented mix of stakeholders were involved – ranging from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the City of New York, the financial community of the United States, the Federal Government, the States of New Jersey and New York which co-owned the Port Authority and its transportation networks supporting Lower Manhattan, and, of course, the families of the victims who suffered most directly from the tragedy itself, as well as the owners of the site itself – SPI – to name but a few.

The history of the WTC has been plagued by challenges. The original World Trade Center took almost 20 years from concept to opening in the midst of the 1973 Oil Crises and was entirely owned by the Port Authority. Its concept was challenging, and its design initially unpopular. For many years, its tenants were almost exclusively government entities. The re-conceived WTC, post 9-11, changed this –  allowing the public sector to focus on the transportation links and the private sector to focus on the now mixed-use real estate development (with Conde Nast, BMI, Brookfield and Moody’s just some of many high-profile tenants) covering office, retail, residential and hospitality.

How did SPI succeed in the face of this history, this tragedy and these competing interests?  What lessons has SPI learned from its WTC experience, and what insights is it taking to its international expansion – and most important, to China and Asia?

The Stanford GSB Chapter of HK could not be more pleased to have Marty share his insights, experience and wisdom on this extraordinary history and its lessons for the future.  We hope you will be able to join us for his talk.

Speaker’s Bio: Martin S. Burger
Chief Executive Officer, Silverstein Properties