Visionaire

Green Buildings Top List of First Quarter Leasing Transactions

Tue

Apr

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.

Visionaire Cops AIA New York Honor Award, Sponsors Sustainable Development Seminar

Tue

Apr

by Stephen Del Percio

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In early March, the Albanese Organization's LEED Platinum hopeful Visionaire condominium project in Battery Park City earned a 2009 AIA New York Building Type Honor Award in the Housing category. The 33-story, $310 million development was designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli and offers 251 units across 500,000 square feet. We've followed the project closely here at gbNYC and, this coming Friday, April 17, you can check out the building up close- for free- at a sustainable development seminar being sponsored, in part, by both Albanese and the FIABCI international real estate federation. Speakers include EcoBroker founder John Beldock, Russell Albanese, and Michael Rossi, who heads the New York chapter of FIABCI. I'll also be speaking, from a legal perspective, about the various implications of LEED certification for the commercial and residential real estate markets. The event will be held on the Visionaire's 30th floor, run from noon to 4:00, and will earn you four continuing education credits if you're a licensed real estate broker in New York State; both lunch and cocktails will be served. You can RSVP for the event at 212-918-1997 or by emailing Mr.

Gotham's Energy Star Ranking, Mitigating Green Building Risk, & Water at the Visionaire

Sun

Mar

by Stephen Del Percio

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LEED Platinum hopeful Visionaire on track to use 55 percent less potable water than comparable high-rise.
Baruch College looking to implement sustainable initiatives.
Considering the free-standing wind turbine in New York City.
New York City ranks 12th in number of Energy Star-certified commercial office buildings.
Larry Silverstein and Port Authority talking about reworking World Trade Center financing and scheduling requirements.
URS to perform construction management services at $30 mill
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LEED-ND in Newburgh, TOD in Garden State, & Alternative Energy Overview for Developers

Fri

Mar

by Stephen Del Percio

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CNN list of ten great buildings to see in NYC includes 4 Times Square and Hearst Tower
NYC broker's clients "impressed" with quality of workmanship at Visionaire in Battery Park City
PLI's Green Real Estate Summit held in Midtown; Arnold & Porter partner observes that alternative energy is "now presenting real estate developers with many choices that require weighing complex technological, legal and risk factors."
Tri-State Transportation Campaign: New York and Connecticut should follow New Jersey's example and encourage transit-oriented development, pointing to successes in Jersey City, Hoboken, and Cranford.
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Josh Dorfman*- Green Innovation: NYC is Fast Becoming the Big Green Apple

Thu

Feb

by Stephen Del Percio

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New York City-based policy makers and green advocates often strike a self-congratulatory tone when recounting how the city is already the greenest in the U.S. thanks to strong population density, good public transit, and limited car ownership by New Yorkers. Yet, ask New Yorkers whether they enjoy living in such close proximity to their neighbors and whether they appreciate the high costs of monthly parking that make car ownership prohibitive and it readily becomes apparent that the policy wonks are describing a situation that has little do with sustainability and even less to do with concerns for quality of life. Now, if New York City’s policy makers were to make their claims about the city’s leadership role as the center of urban sustainability and green innovation based on the entrepreneurial activities underway here, their claims would ring significantly less hollow and would in fact be true. For it is here that green residential building demonstrates in the largest numbers the possibilities for leading outrageously cool lifestyles that are aligned with a cleaner planet.