 I've got so quiet on this. People can hear me. Yes. All right. Good morning. Hi. I'm Mira Zoshi, Deputy Mayor for Operations. And I have the honor and the privilege of having the Department of Parks and Recreation in my portfolio. So I just want to note that when this boat house closed in October 2022, there were stories of doom and gloom everywhere. It'll never reopen again. Another New York classic shuttered. It was amazing, the amount of negativity with no regard to the expertise, perseverance, and deep love of parks of our commissioner, Sue Donahue, and her unparalleled team of parkies. And they were led by the nation's only Get Stuff Done Mayor. That's a lethal combination to be up against. So no surprise, the naysayers lost. Through diligence, smarts, and determination, in particular, the Parks Department Assistant Commissioner for Business Development and Special Events David Serone and his team in record time, they brought home the win. And with a partner accustomed to winning, Legends, they'll deliver for New York City with their extensive hospitality experience, deep commitment and understanding that the service industry serves not only patrons, but the men and women on the front line providing that service. That's where you guys shout. OK. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And so we'll begin this summer, this summer, with a celebration as we open the boat house doors again. And I know leading that celebration will be our mayor, Eric Adams. Good to see you. Good to see you. I remember as a rookie cop rowing the boats here and going on my free dates and just enjoying this beautiful park and all it has to offer. And a real partnership. Rich, you and HTC and the owners here are just coming together, making sure we can allow this amazing landmark to stay open and think about it. The Central Park Boat House will reopen this summer. Many memories. Many great memories. And it is part of the New York story. Back from 1872 and was rebuilt in the 1950s. And just a continuation of tourists and people who are from the city coming out and enjoying the beauty of dining outdoors and the beauty of renting boats and moving around this beautiful park. On top of serving as the backdrop of some of the most classic movies of all time and has been a landmark for generations in New York City. We have, folks have rented boats, got married, proposed, made tough decisions. It all is right here. Just enjoyed the summer nights right here. When it closed last year, we were all worried. I remember reading the stories and our teams coming together and saying that we cannot lose this landmark treasure. But we moved quickly. And I know she's not here today, but hats off to Sue Donahue, and the entire park's team. It's coming back bigger and better than ever. But more than a scenic part of the New York's landscape, 200 union jobs are returning back to this location as well. We love it. We're making important upgrades and improvements and ensuring New Yorkers and tourists will enjoy this beautiful location. We know it and everyone knows it. New York City is the center of America and the center of the universe. And Central Park is the center of New York City. So everything cascades right out from this beautiful park. And they come from all over to enjoy it. And now they continue to enjoy it with this beautiful lakeside dining. So hats off to the entire team. And we want to really thank Legends Hospitality for helping us bring the Boathouse back and investing in the future of this great city. I say over and over again, New York City is not coming back. New York City is back. And dining will be in Central Park. Thank you very much. I want to recognize a few important people with us today, Richard Porteus, regional vice president of Legends Hospitality, Rich Morocco, president of HTC, Randy Levine, Legends Hospitality president of the Yankees, and Betsy Smith, CEO of Central Park Conservancy. Next, we'll hear from one of the park's powerhouses, our own first deputy commissioner, Iris Rodriguez Rosa. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Adams. And thank you, Deputy Mayor Joshi. It is representatives from the Legends Hospitality here that are here today. And many of us that are joining here for this wonderful, exciting announcement here today. Central Park, the low Boathouse, of course, is a landmark. And we are delighted, as New Yorkers and visitors, to our great city for over 70 years. We knew that the work that was needed had to be done quickly to ensure that this great attraction would not remain closed for long. And here we are, just over one month since the last event was held here in the Boathouse, thrilled to announce that this summer we will reopen with the management of Legends Hospitality. And just to let you know, the Legends Hospitality specializes in the delivery of world-class experiences for its patrons, which employs over 200 New Yorkers, something that we can all celebrate. We are confident that Legends will bring this facility, the world-class hospitality and service, that they are so well known for. As part of the agreement, Legends has committed to well over $3.2 million in the capital investment in this Boathouse. We, including more than 250,000 of them for structural maintenance and improvement, I've heard that they are even planning to complete and refresh their menu. Looking forward to that. In addition, they will also be overhauling the iconic Boat Rental Program, which something that is legendary within the city and beyond. We look forward to working with Legends as the stewards of this beloved structure into the future. And we welcome also all the many employees that will be returning back to this Boathouse. So I want to say thank you to my Mayor, Mayor Adams, and my Deputy Mayor, Joshi, and thank you to all of you for being here today. Thank you. Next is our regional vice president from Legends Hospitality, Richard Proteus. Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Commissioner, and for supporting this important project. And most of all, thank you for the Parks Department as well. As everyone knows, Legends specializes in working with iconic venues. Yankee Stadium, One World Observatory in New York, AT&T down in Dallas, Sophie Stadium out in LA, and the Shard in London. And now we're honored, really honored, to add this to our list here. This is our hometown. Legends was born here. Legends was born Yankees as one of our founders. And we proudly work with legendary brands throughout the world. Our hospitality team has been known for a commitment to quality, commitment to excellence, and every experience, from fine dining to premium clubs to stadium concessions. And we'll deliver that memorable experience right here at Low Boat House. To achieve this, as mentioned, we're making a significant capital investment in this project to restore Low Boat House to its beloved status. In addition to the maintenance needs, we'll work on the Boat Rental Program and provide a complete refresh of all menus and all concepts throughout the property. New York is known for its incredible food, iconic sights, and we expect the Boat House to be among the best restaurants, event venues, and overall destinations in this great city. Legends works with unions at all our partners in New York, and we have a great working relationship with them, with the Hotel Trades Council, and we're delighted to work with everyone here to get this going. On a personal note, as a lifelong New Yorker, I've been here many times and can't wait to restore this iconic property. On behalf of Legends, thank you again. We're extremely honored. And we're of this incredible opportunity. Look forward to seeing everyone in the summer. Thank you, thank you. Next, we'll hear from President of HTC, Rich Morroco. Yes! Thank you. HTC, HTC, HTC. Good morning, everyone. My name is Rich Morroco. I'm President of the Hotel Trades Council, the union for almost 40,000 hospitality workers in New York, including the staff of the Boat House. The Boat House has been an iconic institution in New York City for almost 70 years. It welcomes not only tens of thousands of visitors to Central Park every year. It's a lifeline to the almost 200 hardworking New Yorkers that are employed here. That group of workers standing behind me is among the toughest, the most determined, and the most resilient I've had the privilege of knowing. Over 10 years ago, after a long and bitter strike, these workers finally won a contract guaranteeing them the good wages and benefits that transformed their jobs at the Boat House into careers that could support their families. And since then, their hard work has kept the Boat House going strong, ensuring that even after the pandemic decimated the industry, the Boat House was able to reopen. Sadly, after decades in operation, the Boat House closed its doors last year. And while everyone, visitors and residents alike, mourned the loss of this iconic venue, no one suffered deeply the workers who depended on it for their livelihood. Today, thanks to Mayor Adams and his team, we are one step closer to reopening the Boat House and bringing these folks back to work. Now, Mayor Adams has been a tireless advocate for the recovery of New York City's hospitality sector from the day he took office. He has been a unparalleled champion for hospitality workers, not only helping us through the most difficult times in the pandemic, but ensuring that they have high quality jobs to return to. And now, Mayor Adams and this administration has found a way to save this incredible institution and just important, do it in a way that ensures that these workers not only get to keep their jobs, but get to keep their hard fought union contract. So we look forward to working with Legends Hospitality to restore the Boat House to its status as a premier destination. And I want to thank again Mayor Adams for his leadership, all the team in the administration and parks, as well as Legends for helping to do their part to bring this corner of New York City back to life. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Mayor. I noticed it says that the venue will hopefully be open to New Yorkers this summer. Can you talk about what that means, what we're expecting in terms of timeline? Hi, everyone. Yes. Hi, David Sarone, Assistant Commissioner for Business Development and Special Events at NYC Parks. We're following the city's process for awarding these new concessions. We're so thrilled to have Legends here today. And thank you to Mayor Adams and to Deputy Mayor Joshi for all the support in getting to where we are. So the city's process is when we're going to have a public hearing on March 3. We're going to have FCRC meeting on the 8th. And then we're going to send this contract to the city's controller's office to get it registered. We're going to be working with Legends every step of the way to get it open as soon as possible. But the summertime is absolutely our goal. Yes, was there a fitting process on this meeting? There was a robust process, yes, but again, this is something through the city's rules. Back in August, we began planning for this. We met with dozens and dozens of interested companies in the hospitality and restaurant industry. Each one of those conversations led to additional conversations, subsequently negotiations, and to where we are today. And we're really so excited to be working with Legends. But when you're over to award Legends, I just have to say, when you talk about the, individuals that have such a background in hospitality and they do the intrepid, they do the circle line, they do one observatory, they do, so they have quite an extensive background in what they provide in hospitality. So that's what won us over pretty much. And the commitment to be able to commit the capital dollars to refurbish this facility. Can you tell us your most memorable moment here at the Boat House? I hear you guys. That's loud. Yeah. Can you guys let us know, like, what can we expect? What will it look like? What will stay? What will be new? My rookie years, I didn't have a lot of money. And nothing was more romantic than being able to rent a boat and being able to, I have an old picture of renting a boat on a boat house out here and coming here. This was a great, cheap date. Yeah. Can you guys give us an idea of what it will look like? What can we expect? Our approach, obviously we've already begun looking at it, but our approach is to restore it, to restore it to its natural grandeur. We are extremely white-labeled, so from a legend standpoint, we're going to work with everyone here to make sure that we're all aligned on what it looks like in terms of the cafe, the restaurant, the catering facility, and the outdoor deck as well. So, obviously, making sure that all of those outlets and all really kind of come together and restore it to the natural glory. Without overhauling the boat program, what will the boat look like? With the boat program, what we are planning is advanced ticket sales on boats, the ability to use debit or credit cards as well, but certainly we've seen, you know, in visiting here, the lines here. So having put together a program that we can book it in advance, and obviously, you know, reserve boats in advance as well. What is going into your organization getting this contract? I mean, this is so much, if we all talk part of the city's history and so much effort here. It's special to us. Like I said, Legends was born in New York, so it's special to us. It's an iconic property, much like One World, and much like all the other brands that we work with. And most importantly, the people behind us as well. How important was it to have this location occupied and then have it deserted and, you know, be a narrative of, you know, things falling apart? The, you know, I often talk about the, after September 11th, the emotional trauma that our city experienced. But September 12th, we got up and it was assembled for the entire country, the resiliency of New York. And, you know, COVID was in terrorism, but it brought terror. And we need some substantial victories that we are seeing, but we also need symbolic victories. And having this boat house open would play the role of the symbolism of a city in recovery. Because people must not only see the numbers that say we are prospering, but they have to see the symbols of prosperity. And this boat house means a lot. You know, I was joking, but to be able to rent a boat and come here and eat and socialize through the park, you know, the tourism, the 56 million tourists that came to the city, we predicted 65 million this year, we need to see the symbols of progress. And so the partnership with ATC and the legend organization is just adding to the symbolism that is needed. And that's the combination, you know, and so that's why I thank them. And we move quickly, Sue is not here, but the Central Park Conservancy, the parks department, everyone was focused. We had to get this open. We could not allow this boat house to remain closed because it would only give the appearance that this is not a city in recovery. And I see it every day and I'm excited about it, the city has to offer. And no matter what anybody say, this is New York, you know? We're resilient, we never surrender, we never give up, and I dare anyone to bet against us they will lose. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.