NYSERDA

The Jonathan Rose Companies' Smart Growth Investment Fund - the first real estate fund in the country to focus exclusively on acquiring and greening existing buildings - announced yesterday that it has made its first such acquisition here in New York City. The Fund has purchased 198 affordable housing units, along with 4500 square feet of ground floor retail space, at 107-145 West 135th Street in Harlem for $26.5 million. Dattner Architects will work with the Fund to execute a green capital improvement program across the acquisition's ten six-story buildings. The program will follow the Enterprise Green Communities Criteria, as well as participate in NYSERDA's Multifamily Building Performance Program.

Interestingly, the properties' Section 8 contracts with HUD were set to expire at the end of 2008, but the Fund worked with HUD to negotiate both an interim renewal and a fresh 20-year contract that will keep the properties affordable. The New York City Acquisition Fund provided an acquisition loan to the Fund; NYCAF provides both acquisition and predevelopment loans to affordable housing developers.

Designed by Manhattan-based Magnusson Architecture and Planning , Melrose Commons is one of only six projects in the state of New York that is participating in USGBC’s LEED for Neighborhood Development ("LEED-ND") Pilot Program. The 2000-unit, mixed-use and income development will set aside 50 percent of available units for households at or below 60 percent of HUD income limits. The city is currently soliciting developers for three individual parcels on East 162nd and East 163rd Streets between Courtlandt and Melrose Avenues in the South Bronx, and individual buildings will be required to comply with both NYSERDA’s Multifamily Performance Program and the Enterprise Green Communities rating criteria.

The Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library, just to the northeast of Schenectady, recently earned formal LEED certification from USGBC. The 55,000-square-foot project was designed by architects Woodard Connor Gillies & Seleman of Albany and opened to the public back in December of 2006. NYSERDA served as a technical advisor on the project, which participated in the New York Energy $mart New Construction Program, and reviewed the proposed energy-saving features of the building proposed by the design team, which included high-efficiency windows, additional insulation, efficient lighting with occupancy control, efficient HVAC systems, and a digitally controlled building management system.

NYSERDA offered the project team financial incentives both for the additional costs of the energy savings features, as well as the LEED certification process itself. While there’s no data available on how the building has performed since it opened up, NYSERDA anticipated that the project would yield an annual energy savings of around 382,000 kWh and cost savings of $55,000.