All Posts Tagged With: "FXFOWLE"

Times Square is about to receive New York City’s first green-powered electronic billboard. Tokyo-based Ricoh Company, Ltd. will install a 47 by 126 foot sign on the Reuters Building (3 Times Square, at the northwestern corner of 42nd Street and 7th Avenue) that will draw power from 45 solar panels and 4 wind turbines. In what should be an interesting twist, if the photovoltaics do not receive sufficient sunlight or winds are not strong enough to drive the turbines, the sign will simply not illuminate. According to Ricoh, the installation should account for a reduction of 18 tons in carbon dioxide per year.

Unfurling a banner reading “global warming kills more people than a 9/11 every week,” daredevil climber Alain Robert ascended the 52-story New York Times Tower on 8th Avenue yesterday and was arrested upon reaching the top. Robert later claimed that he chose the tower for his climb because of its green features; the stunt was performed on the United Nations’ World Environment Day.

The National Audubon Society, one of the country’s oldest and best-known wildlife conservation groups, has just moved into a new eco-friendly headquarters, the New York Times reported this weekend. The office, which occupies the seventh floor of 225 Varick Street, went well beyond the criteria needed to receive LEED Platinum certification, according to John Flicker, Audubon’s president. The idea was to lead by example, and Flicker reported that the Society was able to “meet the LEED standard more fully than [it] anticipated and with less effort that [it] expected” due to the increased availability of green building materials on the market. The project registered under LEED for Commercial Interiors (”LEED-CI”) and is currently awaiting formal certification- for Platinum or otherwise- from USGBC.

In early February, we noted an interview that SJP Properties’ Stephen Pozycki gave to Real Estate Weekly about progress at LEED Gold hopeful 11 Times Square, which is currently under construction at the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. “Tenants will come,” Pozycki said at the time, while also expressing his expectation that the tower would be half-leased come summer. Despite the softening market, it appears that Mr. Pozycki’s prediction may prove prescient, as Real Estate Weekly reported this week that the French bank Natixis is considering up to 250,000 square feet at 11 Times Square. The bank is apparently conducting test fit-outs but has yet to commit to occupying space at the tower. Natixis currently leases space in a number of Midtown trophy buildings- including 9 West 57th Street and 1350 Avenue of the Americas- that it wants to consolidate into one similarly prestigious space- LEED Gold, even on 8th Avenue, appears to meet that litmus test.