Albanese Organization

Last Friday, I gave a presentation at the Albanese Organization’s LEED Platinum hopeful Visionaire condominium project in Battery Park City to an audience of mostly real estate brokers. After presenting the CoStar and RICS studies (both of which we have reviewed in detail over at GRELJ), I put up two slides that I had converted from articles here at gbNYC setting forth the top fifty leasing transactions in Manhattan for 2008 and 2007. If you remember, we used the lists prepared by CoStar and plucked out leases that were finalized in LEED-certified, LEED-registered, or Energy Star-certified buildings during the course of each year. I noted to the audience on Friday that although such data is purely anecdotal, it does suggest the importance for brokers to understand the purview of third-party rating systems, including some of the risk management issues which I identified later on in the presentation.

In the wake of the Albanese Organization’s Verdesian rental building achieving LEED Platinum last month, we thought it would be a good time to check in with the Visionaire, Albanese’s next foray into sustainable living at Battery Park City. A 33-story condominium tower designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli, which also served as architect at the Verdesian and Albanese’s LEED Gold Solaire rental building on the north end of Battery Park, the Verdesian’s 251 units were 40 percent sold as of this past October. The 500,000-square-foot project is aiming for a LEED Platinum rating and should be ready for occupancy later this year. The curving, sail-like façade of the tower, which is located on the southern end of Battery Park at 70 Little West Street, faces the Hudson River and provides for water views in every unit.