If my tie was fixed. All right. I do not consider myself a journalist. Else would consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of an interviewer even though i have a day job of running a private quitting firm. How do you define leadership a private equity firm. How do you define leadership . What makes somebody tech . Many people in the investment world have bought sports teams, i am not one of them that i do admire others who have fulfilled their ambitions to get involved in sports. Ross. Them is steve this year he was the host for the super bowl. It is a great diversion from the other successful things he has done. His Real Estate Interest and now hisexports interest sports interest. He is given away millions of dollars for education and other purposes. I admire him as an investor and humanitarian. Did they call you up and say how about doing this . Stephen i think every team in every city really wants the super bowl because it is a Great Economic Development for the city and the impact it has is fantastic. I think the fans, they love coming to miami because we have the best weather this time of year. It is the policy of the nfl to reward teams who build new stadiums with at least one super bowl. This is the 11th time the super bowl, which is the most of any super bowl has been in miami. Team so how come your isnt in the super bowl . [laughter] stephen that is a good question. It is not as easy as you think. David when will the dolphins be in the super bowl . Any soon . I read that tom brady may be a free agent. Im not sure if you are able to talk about that as the owner. Stephen we are not allowed to talk to him until sometime in march. We are a time that is now building. I do not know why you would really want to come to the dolphins. He is one of the fiercest competitors there is. The dolphins are building a team for the future. Stephen david when it was announced the super bowl was coming here, your friends say can we get tickets . Stephen i have been inundated with requests for tickets. Thely the city controls all tickets. I have to buy my own box. David do you get a discount . Stephen not really. I am one of 32. When david when you are an owner of an nfl team, you meet with other owners often. What are those like . Are there big egos in the room . Andhen you have 32 egos you divide and conquer. I think the nfl really controls the meeting. Not finding all these individuals standing up and a stating all these different reasonings. They are actually. Was ownedhen the team towayne in 2008 you bought 49 with an obligation to buy another 51 . When the team was owned by wayne, into thousand eight you bought 49 with an obligation to buy another 51 . Is it worth 1. 1 million today . Stephen no, it is worth more. David are you ever going to sell . Stephen no. David did you play football when you were younger . Stephen yes. Youd what position did play . Stephen front tackle. David there are a lot of jewish owners team owners, are there any jewish players . Stephen yes. Did you ever think you are going to be an nfl player . Stephen not a quarterback. David lets talk about how you came to be an owner. It is not easy to buy a team. Lets talk about your background. You grew up originally in the detroit area. Your father was an inventor. What is an inventor . Is that a real job . Tinkeringe was always in the office trying to do something. David is there any income when you are tinkering . Stephen he did well marrying my mother. David and what did your mother do . Stephen she was a housewife. David your family moved to miami for high school. Why did they move to miami . My fathers inventing days were over. He went down to help manage a family hotel. Name of thewas the hotel . Martinique. David youddavid i assume you did reasonably well in high school . Stephen not really. David you went to the university of florida. Stephen i transferred to the university of michigan. David why . Stephen it was always a dream to go to the university of michigan and i didnt have the grades right out of high school so i was able to transfer from florida to mash again michigan. You have given the university of michigan about 400 million . Stephen more. David has the university of florida ever said to you you were here for one year, why dont you give us anything . [laughter] why dont you give us anything . [laughter] dont even think they know who i am. David why did you go to law school . Is it because youre jewish . After Wayne State Law School you went to nyu to get a masters in tax. Stephen yes. David then you went back to detroit and worked at a tax firm . Stephen i was a tax lawyer. To new yorkyou went in investment banking. Stephen i thought i would go back to detroit eventually but it was like i came home to a place ive never been. New york is an exciting place for young people that really want to succeed. David you work at bear stearns and then you got fired. Did you get fired because you are smarter than everybody else and they didnt like smart people. . Stephen sounds good. How hard is it to call up your mother and say i have a law degree, i have a masters in tax, i got fired. Stephen i wanted to stay in new york. I didnt know what to do. I didnt think i could get a job. I thought at that point in time what do i know, where the good opportunities are . Thought up a process, wrote out a Business Plan and i started my own company. Lend youur mother 10,000 . Lent you 10,000 . Stephen i had to live. David you started a Company Called related. Where did you get that name from . I started looking at real estate and there are so many aspects that are related related management it was a name that made sense from that standpoint. It was a bad enough name that no one had ever used it before. Related. U had the name youre syndicating real estate deals. You go to wealthy people and say would you like to invest in this real estate project . Stephen it was boom or bust in real estate. I thought you had to have a steady stream of income and then you can invest in those profits into element because that is where you can remake large sums of money. Financial service arm, which was the syndication side. We were selling tax losses to wealthy investors. We had a different tax law at that point of time. Using that those profits in development. Since i didnt know anything about development, i saw the opportunities for Affordable Housing, for the first to seven years of my career, all i did was portable housing. David for people who are not real estate developers, what does a developer really do . Findsn he is the one who the land, hires the architect, makes sure the building gets built on budget, on time and manages it when it is completed. You became one of the larger developers of lets say low Income Housing or subsidized in the u. S. Ousing Stephen Lyndon johnson had Great Society programs that set off the government to provide the funds for provide Affordable Housing. He had the section eight programs the government initiated after so it was really a question of taking the government subsidies and applying them across the country. I saw when i read it, we really companyrted a developing at 72 and by 1980 we had built something close to 8000 units. David lets suppose i want to buy an apartment in hudson yards. How what what it cost to buy an apartment there . Stephen now is a good time to buy. I have a deal for you. Stop the interview right now and take my deal. You are doing a lot in this area of subsidized housing and ultimately you build a development that came the Biggest Development in new york at this time, which is the time warmer time warner element time warner development. Why was that such a big deal . Stephen you want to do something impactful in life. It is not a question of the money. Youre not working because of money. Everyone needs to make money but do you want to do something impactful. Meaningful, challenging. Time warner became a Big Development time warner became a Big Development. You lived there as well. Ultimately though you decided to build something even bigger, which became the biggest Real Estate Development in the history of our country, hudson yards. Are people who do not live in new york or visit, what is the big deal about hudson yards . Over 60 of the buildings in new york were over 60 years old in new york. They were obsolete. New york was growing into the hottest area of new york was a place called chelsea. I saw the idea when hudson yards came about to create a livework place environment. People were looking for sustainable environments. Liveworkplay environment in the middle of new york, there was a real need for it. We were able to attract corporations because they are looking for talent and it chelsea was the hottest part of the country where the young people are. Build this into thousand eight at the time the recession was going on in 2008 at the time the recession was going on. Was that scary . Stephen we made a contract before the crisis started. Before we we had signed our letter of intent and put up some money but before we went hard we negotiated some points in the deal that we would not have to start the project until certain events happened. In other words, there would be an office market, the availability of money and that the condo market would be able to absorb the units. David the total Square Footage 16,000, 16 Stephen Stephen million square feet . 16 million square feet . Stephen the request for proposals whirs for riff was for roughly 13 million square feet. Our Development Today will be over 20 million square feet. David how much did you have to put into this to make it work . Stephen right now we are in it to 18 million. Mean,l probably i billion. David and youre going to make a profit on that . Stephen i would hope. Inid no commercial project u. S. History has ever been that expensive. Is that right . Stephen if you look in terms of Square Footage, which is how i think you would measure the size of something, it is the Largest Private Development ever in the u. S. David why didnt you consider naming it the ross center . You didnt want to put your name on it . Stephen no. David you have a sculpture there that is very famous. People some people think it is great, some people think it is not so great . Stephen who doesnt like it . David some architects. Stephen the New York Times doesnt like anything we do. David what is the sculpture . Stephen we call it the vessel. It is a series of steps, if you will, that you can walk around. We wanted to create the new heart of new york. Kind ofto have some iconic structure. If you look at new york, i think , you take rockefeller center, which i look at as being the heart of the city. Every terrorist goes to rockefeller center. I wanted some type of structure that would be a 365 Day Christmas tree. I looked for it and i found this igner, Thomas Heather wick Thomas Heatherwick. I didnt know the cost. Behought it would cost may 75 million and it costed about 160 million. Stephen you got blackrock, kkr to move there. Did you have to go to them and say move from where you are to hudson yards . David the appeal was corporations today survive by getting talent. They are in an obsolete place and they knew this is where their talent wanted to live. When we sold them, they saw what we were creating and we were very fortunate to get the Top Companies in each field in new york. It was not across industries and without building it and ,pening it, i love saying it we have the highest rents in new york today. David you dont mean to say the highest rents. You mean the rents that are the most appropriate. Lets suppose i want to buy an apartment in hudson yards. What would it cost to buy an apartment there . Stephen now is a good time to buy. I have a deal for you. Stop the interview right now and take my deal. David if somebody is watching i want to be a successful real estate developer, what is the skill set . Stephen you have to have a passion for what you are doing. Lets talk about your flowing there before moment. Why did you do that . Why did you agree to give away half your net worth . What did your children say about that . I am giving away most of my net worth. I have taken care of my children. I believe in giving back. Ateople look at it their families dynastic late. I was very fortunate at their families dynastically. I was very fortunate and i want to give back. This feeling of not feeling entitled. What are your passionate causes and philanthropy . Stephen you want to do things you are passionate about. You start with education and making the city and places where you live better but today to me the biggest area of concern that i have is the environment, climate. Everybody. S any disease, when you talk about survival, there is nothing more impactful than that. David if somebody is watching this and says i want to be i want to bes, a real estate developer, what is the thing that makes it possible . Be successful in anything you have to have a passion for what you are doing. If you have that passion, i you are affordable doing well and you are doing good at the same time. Today Affordable Housing is still the greatest need we have in america. Know inccessful as you building your company, there is a question of if you have an idea, stand upon it and then connect the dots as you grow. You never stop working. David when you build your company related, like my company carlisle, at some point you say if somebody else can run it day today, i am not the coceo anymore, are you the ceo anymore . Just theno, i am chairman. You only Grow Companies by surrounding yourself with great people, likeminded thoughts. My success,most of all my success really to all the people i have surrounded myself with the partners. I look at them and working together and executing is probably the most exciting thing in life. David did your parents live to see your success . Stephen partially. David did they ever say you should have worked harder . Stephen you had this incredible david you had this incredible career. Any regrets about what you have done with your life . Arehen i regret that we not playing the super bowl this weekend in miami. Do. Ally love what i i still have great passion for it. David thank you for taking the time. I know you are very busy this weekend because everyone is here and once your time. By the way, if i want a ticket, how wet i get one . Would i get one . Stephen you want a condo . Get a ticket. Haslinda hello. I am Haslinda Amin in singapore. Sky highpreneur with ambitions in luxury hospitality, our guest has dealt his dreams atop the asian skyline as these hotelseo of and resorts. Raised in india and