Green Real Estate
Minerva Place: Green Affordable Condos in White Plains
We noted recently that Community Housing Innovations (”CHI”) has broken ground on the $4.5 million, affordable, green Minerva Place Condominiums in White Plains, but wanted to formally present you with a few more details about the project. Minerva Place is one of the first low-rise new developments in Westchester County to satisfy the New York Energy $mart Multifamily Performance Program guidelines. The project includes a 350-foot-deep geothermal heating and cooling system, as well as efficient insulation and construction techniques that CHI anticipates will save residents up to 30 percent on energy costs. Minerva’s energy-efficient features are being subsidized by a $55,000 grant from NYSERDA. The project was designed by Warshauer Mellusi Warshauer Architects and includes 11 two-bedroom (priced at $265,000) and 3 one-bedroom units ($225,000), each with hardwood floors and granite kitchen countertops. To qualify, families must have incomes between $73,000 and $91,000.
Popularity: 14% [?]
22Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
ML: The Ericsson Barn at Milo Vineyards, Milo, New York (Video)
The Ericsson Barn at Milo Vineyards is a 5000-square-foot, four-bedroom home that’s currently for sale in the town of Milo in western New York State, just to the southwest of Rochester. The barn itself was actually salvaged from nearby Watertown in 2007 and was originally built in the 1800s. The project is the brainchild of Tom Johnson, a Parsons-trained designer who completed a similar renovation for himself back in 2005, spending $175,000 to relocate a 150-year-old barn from Canada and refurbish it on a separate plot in Milo. The Ericsson Barn is listed for sale at $1.25 million and was renovated pursuant to LEED specifications, though it’s unclear whether the project ever registered for or is seeking formal certification from USGBC. Johnson recycled the original siding of the barn into flooring and also installed a radiant sub-floor heating system.
Popularity: 12% [?]
22Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
First Green Schools Guide-Certified School Opens Doors at 213 East 63rd Street
After taking effect earlier this year, the New York City Green Schools Guide and Rating System (“GSG”) now applies to all new school construction, modernization, and renovation projects in the five boroughs. The GSG and Rating System is based on LEED, but also incorporates elements from the Collaborative for High Performing Schools Rating System (developed by Washington, Massachusetts, and New York States) and the School Construction Authority’s Best Practices. It’s intended to complement Local Law 86 (which mandates LEED Silver for most public projects in New York City). Designed by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, the first school certified under the program opened for the academic year back on September 2 at 213 East 63rd Street.
Popularity: 15% [?]
16Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
The NoMad: NYC’s First Hotel Conversion to Seek LEED Rating
According to Crain’s, Michael Rawson, the head of GFI Hotel Co., is close to announcing plans for The NoMad, a 160-room renovation of a 12-story Beaux-Arts-style building on Broadway between 28th and 29th Streets just north of Madison Square Park (hence the moniker). Notwithstanding several new local hospitality developments that will seek LEED ratings, the project would be the first hotel conversion in New York City to pursue LEED certification, though specific green features have yet to be revealed. The project will feature 11 suites whose interiors will be designed by Jacques Garcia and also include a roof garden and restaurant. Mr. Rawson, who has worked closely with hotelier Andre Balazs on other projects including The Mercer, plans on opening the hotel in the fall of 2009.
Popularity: 14% [?]
16Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
ML: Historic Installation for BBG-BBGM -CI Silver Space at Empire State Building
We wrote earlier this summer about Brennan Beer Gorman Architects / Brennan Beer Gorman Monk Interiors’ (”BBG-BBGM”) new headquarters space on the 25th floor of the Empire State Building, which will seek the tower’s first LEED for Commercial Interiors rating. Recently, the 32,000-square-foot project’s general contractor Aragon Construction installed BBG-BBGM’s HVAC system on the building’s first setback on the southwest corner. The two 9500-pound chillers will run independently from the rest of the Empire State Building and were designed to save BBG-BBGM 15 percent on energy consumption over ASHRAE standards. The installation was actually the first in the history of the building and suggests some of the intricacies of both green construction contracts and leasing provisions, including whether the landlord or tenant should be responsible for the installation of such equipment and how any associated savings that are realized might be shared between the two sides.
Popularity: 15% [?]
15Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
SJP Properties to Seek LEED Rating for Metropark Corporate Center
I spent a few months a couple of years ago reviewing documents out at a client’s in Iselin, New Jersey. I’d take the train out from Penn Station to Metropark, a station serving a sprawling office park plunked down at the crossroads of New Jersey, which sits quite literally in between the intersection of the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike, about 45 minutes from Midtown and and Philadelphia on the Northeast Corridor. Parking garages are linked to the station (which is currently undergoing a $30 million dollar renovation) and low-rise corporate office buildings are easily accessible as well. Although there’s no residential component (or any real pedestrian access to speak of), I always thought of Metropark as a type of transit-oriented development; quick access to major roads with easy rail connections to the entire Northeast and Newark Airport. Accordingly, it wasn’t all that surprising to me that SJP Properties announced yesterday that it will seek a LEED rating for a 300,000-square-foot, 10-story office building that it will develop across the street from the station.
Popularity: 15% [?]
11Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Anchor Tenant is Credit Crunch Casualty at SJP Properties’ LEED Gold Hopeful 11 Times Square
The New York Observer today confirmed a story that first appeared in Real Estate Weekly a couple of weeks ago (which we noted here at gbNYC) regarding the French bank Natixis, which has been on the hunt for office space in Manhattan since earlier this year. It appears that the bank is close to inking a deal to sublease 270,000 square feet at 277 Park Avenue from JPMorgan Chase, which is moving into the former headquarters of Bear Stearns at 383 Madison Avenue. The deal would be a major blow for SJP Properties, which is still without an anchor tenant for its speculative, LEED Gold hopeful 11 Times Square that continues to rise along Eighth Avenue. The firm had held its asking rents steady in the $100 per square foot range, though the recent flood of Class A space that has become available from financial services tenants looking to downsize may force it to reassess its position, as Natixis will pay around $80 per square foot for its space at 277 Park.
Popularity: 14% [?]
9Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
ML: Magnusson Architects’ 1070 Anderson Avenue in the Bronx
1070 Anderson Avenue, designed by Manhattan-based Magnusson Architects is an 8-story affordable housing development in the Highbridge section of the Bronx that will offer 41 units in a variety of studio and one-, two-, and three-bedroom configurations. The $12 million tower’s design is inspired by principles of Art Deco and rises as a south-facing L, increasing the reach of natural light into each apartment and also creating a 6000-square-foot courtyard for residents to enjoy. Green roofs grace the seventh- and eighth-floor setbacks, while low-E, Energy Star-certified windows, an efficient rooftop boiler, and continuous exterior insulation will aim to lower the building’s utility bills. Other green features include low-VOC paints and materials, dual flush toilets, CFLs, and Kone Ecospec elevators. The building’s lobby includes local plants and shrubbery that will receive water from a rainwater collection system. Developer New Destiny Housing is considering applying for a LEED Silver rating, but will participate in an NYSERDA incentive program.
Popularity: 18% [?]
8Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Price Chopper Aiming to Open New York’s First LEED-Certified Supermarket
Schenectady-based Price Chopper Supermarkets has broken ground in Colonie on what’s set to become New York’s first LEED-certified supermarket, just north of Albany. The 69,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open up sometime in early 2009, and Price Chopper hopes to use the project as a template for future green supermarkets across the Northeast. A fuel cell from UTC Power will supply 60 percent of the supermarket’s electricity requirements, as well as 400 kilowatts of standby power in the event of a grid outage. The supermarket will recover heat from its refrigeration equipment and use it as space heating. Other green design features are LEED-standard, including locally-sourced construction materials and energy-efficient lighting.
Popularity: 17% [?]
4Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
LEED-EB for MTV (& SL Green) at 1515 Broadway in Times Square
SL Green has started a $160 million capital improvement program at 1515 Broadway- home to MTV’s Times Square studios- which will upgrade the tower’s HVAC, lighting, and other building systems in pursuit a LEED-EB Silver rating from USGBC. Designed by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox, the renovation will also include the installation of a 42-foot high extension to the 54-story building’s street-level curtain wall, where pedestrians can peer into the MTV space and access the lobby of the Minskoff Theater. Steve Cuozzo quotes SL Green leasing chief Steve Durels as stating that the firm’s “goal is to give [the building] more street presence and more drama, especially as you look at its lower part.” SL Green purchased the 2 million-square foot tower back in 2002 for $480 million, and its green upgrades come in advance of the pending expiration of nearly 1 million square feet of the total 1.5 million in the building currently leased by Viacom.
Popularity: 22% [?]
4Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Heritage Realty Services to Seek LEED Rating for 200K S/F Commercial Property in Greenwich
New York City-based Heritage Realty Services recently purchased 200,000-square-foot 600 Steamboat Road in Greenwich, Connecticut for $200 million. The deal is scheduled to close this fall and Heritage plans to upgrade a variety of building systems, among other renovations. The 36-year-old waterfront property sits adjacent to Greenwich Harbor includes a 600-space parking garage and a 350-foot-long floating dock. Architects Roger Ferris and Partners are supervising the project and will seek an unspecified level of LEED certification for the upgrades. Greenwich-based Gladstone Real Estate is banking on asking rents of $150 per square foot in light of recent local deals and 660 Steamboat Road’s location near I-95, the Northeast Corridor train line, and waterfront access.
Popularity: 13% [?]
3Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
791 Parking Spaces for Platinum: New Jersey’s Greenest Building Set to Open in Morristown
Notwithstanding its 791-space parking garage, 14 Maple Avenue in Morristown is about to become the greenest building in New Jersey. The 30,000-square foot, four-story structure is being built by the Morristown Parking Authority and will seek a LEED Platinum rating from USGBC. In addition to housing Authority offices, the building will also be home to the non-profit offices of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Seeing Eye Inc., the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, the Morristown Partnership and the Morris Arts Council. The parking garage will allot spaces for both members of the public and building employees. David Grant, the Dodge Foundation’s president, stated that “our goals were to create a green building that is both educational and inspirational.” In addition to bamboo and cork covered floors, plants are essential to the green features of the building.
Popularity: 14% [?]
2Sep2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 0 comments | Continued
Green Building Statistics: Demand is High, Design Experience is Low
We’ll be signing off today for the holiday weekend, but before we do that, I want to point out a couple of interesting green building statistics: one group collected by NAHB and the other which was mentioned during yesterday’s Green Building Initiative webinar discussing insurance and surety issues for green construction projects. During the webinar, one of the panelists noted that only 20 percent of his company’s (XL Specialty Insurance) insured design professionals consider themselves “very experienced” in green design- obviously a percentage to which XL is paying close attention in the context of green risk management. On a different track, the National Association of Home Builders recently released figures from a survey of multi-family builders and developers. While 74 percent of respondents said that their buyers and renters are willing to pay more for green amenities, the median additional amount that they’re willing to pay is just 2 percent.
Popularity: 25% [?]
28Aug2008 | Stephen Del Percio | 1 comment | Continued-
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