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Health & Fitness

Executive Leadership of Chelsea Piers Connecticut to be Honored with the 2013 March of Dimes Real Estate Award

Roland W. Betts, Tom A. Bernstein and David A. Tewksbury, Principal owners of Chelsea Piers Connecticut, will be honored with the 2013 Real Estate Award at the 18th annual March of Dimes Fairfield County Real Estate Award Breakfast on Thursday, December 12th at 7 a.m. at Chelsea Piers Connecticut in Stamford. Over 700 industry professionals are expected to attend.

The Real Estate Award Breakfast honors outstanding individuals and/or a company whose commercial real estate activities have significantly enhanced the local community.  In the event’s history, $5.2 million has been raised in support of the March of Dimes mission to give all babies a healthy start.

“Chelsea Piers Connecticut has dramatically improved the vitality of our community.  The facility is very impressive and a genuine amenity to the region.   The principals of Chelsea Piers deserve our recognition and appreciation,” said Ed Tonnessen, chair of the Real Estate Awards committee and Executive Managing Director at Jones Lang LaSalle.

“We are honored to join the prestigious group of award winners within the Fairfield County real estate community and are so pleased to support the critical work of the March of Dimes,” said David A. Tewksbury, President of Chelsea Piers Connecticut.

Roland W. Betts is Co-Founder and Chairman of Chelsea Piers L.P., and Co-Chair of Chelsea Piers Connecticut.  Mr. Betts is also Founder and President of Silver Screen Management, Inc., which raised more than $1.4 billion in four limited partnerships to finance and produce over 75 films with the Walt Disney Company.  Films include Beauty and the BeastPretty WomanThe Little Mermaid, Good Morning Vietnam, and Three Men and a Baby.  Additionally, Mr. Betts is the President of International Film Investors, Inc., which produced and financed numerous films including, Gandhi and The Killing Fields.  He is responsible for the financing of approximately 100 feature films.  For nine years, he was lead owner of the Texas Rangers Baseball Club.  The Texas Rangers were purchased in 1989 by a group of investors assembled by Betts and President George W. Bush.  Mr. Betts was elected to the Yale Corporation in 1999.  In 2003 he was elected Senior Fellow and served in that capacity for the next 8 years.  From 2001 - 2006 Mr. Betts served as a Director of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation which was charged with rebuilding Lower Manhattan.  In that capacity, Mr. Betts chaired the Site Committee charged with the planning and rebuilding of the World Trade Center site.  Betts has served as a Trustee of numerous organizations including: the American Museum of Natural History, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Columbia University Law School, the National Park Foundation, the United States Olympic Committee and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  Betts and wife Lois have been married for 41 years and have two daughters.

Tom A. Bernstein is Co-Founder and President of Chelsea Piers L.P., formed in 1992, to develop and operate the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex, a 30-acre waterfront sports village located between 17th and 23rd Streets along Manhattan’s Hudson River.  He is also Co-Chairman of Chelsea Piers Connecticut.  Bernstein was one of the two principals of Silver Screen Management, Inc., and the affiliated Silver Screen companies.  From 1989 to 1998, he was also one of the principal owners of the Texas Rangers Baseball Club, along with Roland Betts.  In September of 2010, Bernstein was appointed Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C by President Obama, where he has served as a Council Member, member of the Executive Committee and as Chair of the Committee on Conscience since his appointment by President Bush in 2002. In January 2010, he was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of the Fund for Cities of Service, formed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  He also serves as Chair of the Partnership for Public Service, Vice-Chair of Human Rights First and is a member of the Board and Executive Committee of the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, GA. Bernstein is also a member of the Board of Directors of several other non-profit organizations, including WNYC Radio (New York's public radio stations), The Fresh Air Fund and City Year New York.  He and his wife, Andrea, are the parents of three children.

David A. Tewksbury is Executive Vice President of Chelsea Piers New York, and President of Chelsea Piers Connecticut.  Tewksbury started his career in New York working for Cushman and Wakefield, Inc., an international commercial real estate services firm.  During his ten years at Cushman and Wakefield, he was consistently recognized as one of the company’s top leasing brokers in the country.  He has served as a trustee for several not for profit organizations in New York, including; Friends of Hudson River Park, Association for a Better New York, The Cathedral School and the Sky Rink Youth Scholarship Fund.  Tewksbury is married to Linda Raia Tewksbury, M.D., and they have three daughters.

Tickets are available, and Fund the Mission donations to the March of Dimes can be made in honor of Betts, Bernstein and Tewksbury, at marchofdimes.com/ct.  Special guests include Stamford Mayor-elect David Martin, and Gretchen Carlson of FOX News.  The March of Dimes thanks premier sponsor The Campus/Steven Wise Associates/Spinnaker/CFC, as well as  title sponsors The Ashforth Company/A.P. Construction, and Building and Land Technology, for their support.

About Chelsea Piers

Chelsea Piers Connecticut (CPCT) is a 400,000-sq-ft state-of-the-art sports and recreation facility located in Stamford, CT, just off I-95 at Exit 9. Opened in July 2012, Chelsea Piers Connecticut consists of several core sports facilities encompassing more than 20 sports. Like Chelsea Piers New York, CPCT combines athletic facilities with an extensive array of professional instructors and league programs for youths, teens and adults. Learn more at www.chelesapiersct.com.

About March of Dimes

The March of Dimes is the leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health. With chapters nationwide, the March of Dimes works to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. For the latest resources and information, visit marchofdimes.com or nacersano.org.  Find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.


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