CoStar Group

The CoStar Group’s list of the top 50 Manhattan office leases that were finalized in 2007 appears in this week’s issue of Crain’s New York Business (though it isn’t available online). By our count, 9 of these 50 leases were inked for space in green office buildings. Importantly, 3 out of the top 10 leases (ranking 6 through 8, consecutively) were green. We’ve written about a number of these buildings before, and present each lease below along with links to pertinent posts at gbNYC. We also set forth the tower’s certification status (if any), tenant, landlord, and total square footage of the deal.

Checking in at #8 on the CoStar Group’s list of the top ten green real estate stories of 2007 was the commitment that a number of banks demonstrated to sustainable building and operations during the course of last year. When we presented the list to you earlier this month, gbNYC noted the green efforts of a number of banks here in the New York City area, including JPMorganChase, PNC Bank, and Bank of America. Not to be outdone, HSBC Bank announced last week that its Headquarters Tower on the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City has earned the first LEED Gold rating in Latin America. The 400,000-square-foot, twenty-four-story project earned a 2007 National Interiors Award and top honors for Corporate Interior Design from the Mexican Interior Design Association. HSBC purchased the building back in 2002 after merging with a local Mexico City bank called Bital.

In an article that was published yesterday, Andrew Burr of the CoStar Group listed his top 10 "most influential" green news items of 2007. We wrote about many of these important stories here at gbNYC last year, so we present Mr. Burr's list below with links to our supporting posts. Two items in particular jump out off the list - first, the World Trade Center redevelopment efforts check in at #7; as the massive project gets further off the ground before the close of this quarter, expect to see it appear again on any similar list in 2008. Second, note what took honorable mention - the ASHRAE/USGBC initiative to create Standard 189P, which will eventually be an ANSI-accredited standard intended to be incorporated into local building codes. USGBC plans for 189P to ultimately be a prerequisite for LEED certification, though it's still unclear how this will play out in terms of the increasing number of LEED-driven building codes that were enacted in 2007. This is certainly an issue to keep an eye on in 2008 as 189P continues to move through its public review phase. Items four through ten are after the jump; check out Mr. Burr's article for links to CoStar articles on each of these ten important stories.

#1: CB Richard Ellis Takes Significant Sustainable Steps

• CBRE to Enroll 100 Building in LEED-EB Through Portfolio Program (gbNYC)

#2: USGBC's LEED Green Building System Emerges as De Facto in U.S.

• List of Green Building "Firsts" Emphasizes Need for LEED V3 (gbNYC)

#3: D.C. and Boston Pass Comprehensive Green Building Legislation

• D.C. Proposes Sweeping Green Building Bill (gbNYC)
• Surety Industry Raises Red Flags Over D.C. Green Building Act (gbNYC)
• Beantown Green Building Legislation (gbNYC)

  #4: Investment in Green Buildings Increases

  • New Resource Bank Targets Green Development with Construction Loan Discounts (gbNYC)

  #5: UN Flags Commercial Real Estate as Major Contributor to Climate Change #6: General Electric Plans to Green Entire Holdings Portfolio #7: Green Redevelopment of World Trade Center Underway in Manhattan

  • Green Rising on the Downtown Horizon (gbNYC) 

  #8: Banks Demonstrate Commitment to Sustainability

  • PNC Registers "Green Branch" with PTO (gbNYC)
  • Goldman Sachs' Gold HQ in Battery Park City (gbNYC)
  • Gore Scores 48th Floor at Bank of America Tower (gbNYC)

  #9: Clinton Climate Initiative Provides Funding for Green Retrofits

  • CCI Announces Partnership with Enterprise for $30M Green Fund (gbNYC)

  #10: Wal-Mart Sets Sustainable Pace for Global Retailers