 We're so happy that you all are here today for this ceremony and this special occasion to unveil the Arnold Company's latest project. Ben is not only a great friend to all of us, he's a darn good developer. Ben has been working for almost three decades in the city, converting warehouses to office buildings, building new apartments, building marinas just on the outskirts of town, building condominiums. In fact, I'm lucky enough to live in one of his condominiums. Just does fantastic work and we need Ben to do more. So I just wanted to start that up just by saying, please keep at it, Ben. But Main Street is so excited and the Vista, which I know they're going to maybe speak later, but we are so excited about this project. This is going to bring more and more residents to the area, which will support our businesses. Retail and restaurants cannot survive without customers. And projects like this and all the other projects that Ben has done, thank you very much, have helped to bring these customers to our small businesses and help build our city. Literally every year, our city gets better with the work of Ben and other developers that are here with us today. So I just wanted to welcome everybody to the Main Street District. We're so excited to see this new construction project. New construction, I think Ben and I talked about this about three years ago, just brings a different dimension. We have a number of student housing projects. We have a big crane down the street with one going up now. We have a large number of wonderful historic renovation projects, which have brought new life into our area and helped create a new market for goods and services. But there's just something about new construction, about that drywall and paint smell, about the modern amenities, the great kitchens, all the things that you're gonna see today that bring new residents into the area and help build our city and help keep the best and brightest in our city. So again, Ben, thank you very much for everything that you've done and will continue to do for our city. So Ben, let's give a hand to Ben. Thank you. Secondly, I'd like to introduce the honorable Howard Duvall from the city of Columbia to say a few words. Councilman McDowell was going to be here as well, but he felt ill just today. He took that little test that many of us have taken and it didn't go very well. So he, at the very last minute, could not be here today, but Councilman McDowell, I mean, Councilman Duvall, excuse me, has agreed to say a few words. So Councilman, thank you for coming and thank you for all you do for our city. Thank you. Thank you, Matt. They get McDowell and Duvall mixed up all the time on Council when they call in the agenda roll. So glad to be here. I'm sorry that Ed could not be here. He was prepared to give some remarks today, but I told Ben I was always good for a two-minute talk, especially when you're talking about the kind of developer that Ben Arnold is. The Arnold family has a long history in the city of Columbia and Ben has good genes for doing development that is quality development throughout this community. I was talking to my counselor, who is my trainer, Matt Fullmer, about some of Ben's projects coming up, hopefully the expansion of the convention center and the $500 million worth of investment plus that that will bring. And I mentioned that I was almost always in favor of that. And he said, well, you know, Ben Arnold owns this building and we're in today. So you never know when you're gonna be in an Arnold property. I would like to suck at what Matt said about new development in the city of Columbia. Cranes are important. Not only are they important to support the construction, but they're important because Mayor Rickerman brings it up every time we're talking about construction in the city. When are we gonna get some cranes in the city? It was to the point that we gave him a crane, a miniature crane for part of his Christmas present. But the cranes are necessary. Sometimes we can do it without that kind of crane, but let's get some of those cranes on the convention center projects. I'd now like to introduce Ben Arnold, the latest sign of the Arnold family that's bringing quality development for the city of Columbia. Thank you, Councilman Duvall. Well, it's so good to be back in Columbia. I mean, this is really my home and many of you know, I enjoy my life out there, but to see all my friends and family here, at least a good portion of them, it's so exciting. And while I'm the developer, a lot of credit really goes to Shelly Little. I mean, she's the boots on the ground. She's my COO. She really put the special touches on this deal. And so, Shelly, I gotta call you out first. Bob, you're a lucky man too, but. But the project really wouldn't have happened though without some financing. So Brian Sampson's here and he's gonna cut the ribbon in a minute, but Brian's with the Marist Bank and they were a big factor in making this deal possible. Along with Klein Design Architects, Cox and Dinkins, Codroll and Associates and of course M.B. Kahn built the project and we have Alan Kahn and Charles here who have, I think we go back four generations on their side, three on mine, so wouldn't want anybody else in charge of my construction. So thank you, M.B. Kahn. The city staff, it was more than helpful in this project. It wouldn't have been possible if we didn't have access to the parking garage across the street. So I don't know where L. Matt and he is and behind, sorry, L, thank you. In Missy Gentry, we had some good times figuring that one out, didn't we? But anyway, without that, this wouldn't have been possible. Let's see, who else do I need to, oh, of course, Matt Kennell. How can I leave Matt out? Not only has he been an advocate from this for day one, but him and Rosie Craig through their organizations, the CCP and the Vista Guild contributed to the art which is on Assembly Street. So special thanks to you for making that part of the project special and your words today. I mean, this guy's phenomenal. I'm hiring him to do my next speech. No disrespect to our councilman. Anyway, Duvall mentioned that the convention center and a lot of things depend on timing and for instance, this project right here, I started in 2011 trying to buy Mo Levi's from Florence Levy and it took me until 2013 to convince 104 year old it was time to sell. And then shortly thereafter, Howard Sports, but the point is, is it took like 10 years basically to get from, I wanna buy this property to what we have here today. So, and many people don't appreciate what really goes into this. There's a lot of people, a lot of hard work and coming together is key. And what I wanna say today is along the lines of timing, this is a time for Columbia that is very special. We have an opportunity to expand our convention center and how often do you have $500 million deals that can bring $7.8 billion in impact to our region over 30 years? But it's not just the dollars that you, we talk in economic development, jobs and taxes and all that, it's the lifestyle, it's the image of our city, it's corporate recruiting and entertainment on plazas and pep rallies, arts festivals, this thing's way more than just a few hotels in the convention center. It's a magnet to bring 400,000 people here to light this place up and what does that do? That makes everything else pop. I mean, the airport, you get more direct flights for the citizens here. You get a great hotel to do a staycation. If you wanna get away from the kids, we'll have a four and a half star hotel. If you wanna stay in the rock star suite in the anthem, we'll have that. Anyway, I'm not gonna make this a speech about that because I am very proud of this project here and I think when you see the amenities that we have in some of the features, this project's online with anything you would see in Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, I mean, we have a first class project here and we've only had our, I think, temporary CEO for a few days and we're already seeing fantastic traffic and I don't know if there's any other dignitaries here but I wanna make sure I recognize anybody else. Krista Hampton, stand up. No, I mean, she's our planning director. I mean, things don't get done without her either. Thank you, Krista. Anyway, I don't wanna go one. I wanna get to some music and food so I hope you guys will tour the sixth floor and if you get a chance, go in the lobby of the original Palms because we just redid that and it's fantastic too and the focus is on this but the leasing center and some of the amenities are down there so if you get a chance, peek your head in and so let's cut the ribbon.