Green Real Estate

Green Real Estate

ML: Credit Crunch Taking Bite out of Manhattan LEED Buildings

Mon

Aug

Two of Manhattan's highest profile LEED projects took blows on the chin last week. After announcing in July that it would likely reduce the tower's size by nearly a third, Vornado's plans for Harlem's first office tower in thirty years appear to be on the ropes. Despite generous tax incentives from both the city and state, Vornado has had difficulty obtaining financing for the Swanke Hayden Connell-designed Harlem Tower, even after planning to invest nearly 30 percent ($127.5 million) of the project's total cost. Instead, the developer recently sought an additional $15 per square foot from planned anchor tenant MLB Network ($2 million annually) and, alternatively, also proposed building a five-story building exclusively for the network. The Times reports that both strokes "infuriated" MLB executives, who "wanted to be in a marquee tower on 125th Street." MLB Network now appears to be staying put in Secaucus through 2011, where it has been leasing temporary space at MSNBC's former studios.

Monday LEEDoff: Albanese’s Visionaire in Battery Park City Casts Eyes on Platinum

Mon

Feb

by Stephen Del Percio

1 comment

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.

Location of HGTV’s Green Dream Home 2008 Revealed: Tradition Hilton Head, SC

Fri

Dec

by Stephen Del Percio

12 comments

Last week, HGTV revealed that the location of its Green Home Giveaway, which one lucky viewer will win in 2008, is Tradition Hilton Head, South Carolina, a 5,300-acre planned community that sits between Savannah, Georgia and Hilton Head Island. Designed as a traditional South Carolina Low Country cottage, the 2,000-square-foot, 3-bedroom and 2.5-bath Green Home is registered with USGBC and will pursue an unspecified level of LEED certification (though not under the LEED for Homes Pilot Program). The project will of course incorporate a number of green design features including a graywater system, tankless water heaters, low-E glazing, sprayed-in foam insulation, fiber cement siding, SIPs, and ICFs. House planner Jack Thomasson, who has supervised the construction of each of HGTV’s Dream Homes, describes each of these technologies here in a series of videos that are definitely worth checking out.

Sponsors whose products will appear in the home include Shaw Industries, Sears, GM, SCJ, Kohler, Caesarstone and the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation. You can enter to win the fully-furnished home from March 21 through May 9, 2008; the prize package is worth over $850,000. HGTV will air its Green Home 2008 special on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 9PM ET and provide a tour of the home, with a 360 degree virtual tour available online beginning on March 3.