Larry Green, Westfield Senior Vice President started the ceremony with, "No more meetings, no more hearings..., " inkling on about a settlement between the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization against the city for the new outdoor mall that ended last week.
Westfield Chief Executive, Peter Lowey started his adress with, "I feel like a little boy digging a whole in the ground with my Tonka toys, my Tonka toys have gotten a lot bigger, " getting laughs from the audience. The project is to produce 4,500 jobs and to be completed in 18 months for a Fall 2015 opening he explained. He continued with how the Village will environmentally sound in accordance with a LEED Silver rating. With much enthusiasm he added wanting to make it a world class destination.
"Over sixty percent of the Village has been leased, " Lowey continued with numbers for the location in 2,600 parking spaces, 500 trees and the biggest number in a billion dollars in retail sales.
Councilman Bob Blumenfield stated his happiness of 4,000 jobs coming to the valley with the Village.
Councilman Mitchell Englander joked about being at the ceremony for a new slip 'n' slide in memory of one that had been at the location years ago.
Former Councilman Dennis P. Zine short speech brought up how long the development took again, "You would not know the bureaucracy it took, Larry had a full head of hair when he started, so did I." He jokingly added about not having to get on the 405 anymore to head to other Westfields and was happy about the two community centers coming in with the new mall.
