All Posts Tagged With: "Green Building Law"

The prospects for the first completely green Real Estate Investment Trust, or REIT, are closer to becoming reality. A well-known pioneer in the commercial real estate industry has registered an offering with the SEC for a REIT called Green Realty Trust, Inc. As reported first by CoStar Group, Rob Hannah, CEO and co-founder of TSG Real Estate, a Chicago firm, has made what appears to be the first foray into an all-green REIT. Green Realty Trust has devised an investment strategy that aims to meet the need of increasing demand by commercial users and tenants for green standards by increasing the supply of green buildings for lease. The REIT has set up a Green Advisory Council made up of industry experts that will provide analysis on possible acquisitions. According to the CoStar article, Hannah plans to focus the REIT’s acquisition efforts on existing buildings rather than new construction to try and narrow the list of direct competitors.

At a press conference last week that was held at Tishman Speyer’s LEED Silver hopeful 555 Mission Street, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed municipal LEED legislation that, if enacted, would be among the most rigorous in the country applying to private construction. Mayor Newsom has vowed to fast-track his signature on the legislation should [...]

On Monday, Pittsburgh’s City Council approved a new green building incentive, and entertained a second which it will vote on sometime next year. The first, and less controversial bill, will allow LEED-certified buildings to rise 20 percent higher and include 20 percent more floor area than other buildings in their zoning district. For example, the [...]

Concerns over LEED creep (the application of LEED mandates to private projects) include the potential for awkwardly- or hastily-drafted legislation to change the risk structure associated with a given green construction project for various project stakeholders. For example, back in early August, the Surety and Fidelity Association of America (“SFAA”) and the National Association of [...]

In an article written earlier this week, Dan Walters, a columnist at the Sacramento Bee, articulated his concerns over a LEED-driven green public building regulatory scheme by calling such legislation “part of a broader legislative tendency to avoid tough policy decisions by shifting them to unaccountable outside organizations.” Walters was writing with respect to California’s [...]

I’ve written before about the potential for design professionals to unwittingly expose themselves to unanticipated risks on green construction projects. In a presentation at last month’s 2007 AIA National Convention in San Antonio, Frank Musica, an attorney with a Maryland-based insurance company, provided an overview of twenty-one actual “green claims” brought against engineers and architects. [...]