"We made some really good progress this time," says the veteran developer. Gale and minority partner Posco E&C (70/30) unveiled commitments with Korean Air Lines and United Technologies Corp. to advance the building sustainability movement, and announced a series of projects that will see 5.5 million sf of commercial construction under way by the end of 2008. The events are linked, Hynes explains, allowing Songdo to live up to a bold environmental mantra that has already earned the 100-million-sf mixed-use concept a berth as a pilot project of the USGBC. Memorandums of understanding were signed setting LEED Silver as a baseline standard on buildings going forward.

"That's never been done before anywhere," Hynes says. "It's our contribution to 21st century design and development." The results could be far reaching, he suggests, given New Songdo's claim as the largest private real estate venture in the world. A Korean Air and Inha University partnership is joining UTC and Gale/Posco to build a research facility for studying and promoting "green" ideas, products and technologies. A part of the Songdo International Business District--the city's commercial core--the Sustainable International Business Center will host an annual conference aimed at further positioning Songdo IBD as "the center of environmental initiatives in Northeast Asia."

Besides Stanley Gale, chairman of the New York City-based real estate investment and development firm, the signing ceremony was attended by current US Korean Ambassador Alexander Vershbow and former Ambassador Thomas Hubbard, chairman of the Gale International Advisory Board. Korean Air affiliate Hanjin Group was represented by Chairman Yang-Ho Cho. Hartford-based UTC showed its commitment by dispatching CEO George David. "The SIBC is an extraordinary opportunity to demonstrate on an urban scale what can be accomplished," David said in his remarks.