Green Leases

Green Leases

Finding the Green to Go Green: Is This Green Leasing's Moment?

Wed

Jan

It's hardly controversial, given what the "g" in gbNYC stands for, to advocate the idea that green retrofits are a good idea for buildings in New York and elsewhere. But as the consensus grows that this is, in fact, what's going to happen -- at least in the sense that a greener built environment is so clearly wise, responsible and cost-effective that it kind of has to happen -- let's take a break from popping Cristal over the coming retrofit boom and fretting over the imperfections of our current capacities. During that break, we'd encourage you to take a walk (but bring mittens, it's cold) and maybe give some thought to just how we're going to pay for all those awesome retrofits that are surely coming down the pike. While we all broadly agree on what should happen when it comes to retrofits, it will be easier to believe that all those good things will happen when we have some idea how they will happen. Which brings us to... green leasing?

There's Gold in Jersey: Montclair's GreenWorks on Grove Gets LEED Props

Wed

Oct

by David Roth

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We make no great effort to conceal our pro-New Jersey bias here at gbNYC, but it's especially gratifying when a Garden State-based project comes along that would be exciting even if it were not located a short drive -- depending on traffic -- from where Stephen and I grew up. GreenWorks on Grove, which Steve profiled earlier in its life cycle, is one such project -- an old gas station in Montclair re-imagined as a super-green 3,500-foot retail space. Considering the astonishing suite of green design elements built into GreenWorks on Grove -- from solar panels and high-performance glass to individual electric submetering and super-efficient HVAC and plumbing systems -- it was probably a given that GreenWorks would get the LEED certification it sought. And yet it's still worth celebrating just how thoroughly GreenWorks has succeeded in what was a very ambitious bit of adaptive reuse. They were awarded LEED Gold for Core and Shell earlier this week.

TD Bank Inks 20-Year Lease at Historic LEED Gold-Hopeful Argonaut Building

Tue

Aug

by Stephen Del Percio

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TD Bank has signed a 20-year commercial lease at M1 Real Estate's 10-story Argonaut Building at 224 West 57th Street and Broadway in Midtown. The historic tower was landmarked by the city back in 2000 and was initially built in 1909 as the headquarters for General Motors. M1 is currently seeking LEED Gold certification for the tower in connection with $45 million in ongoing renovations designed by Gensler. Its 4700-square-foot deal with TD Bank leaves around 15,000 square feet of retail space left across the tower's lower three floors; 135,000 square feet of Class A office space above is still available. The neo-Gothic, terra cotta tower was named for GM's real estate holding company and was also the home to Hearst prior to that company's move one block west to its LEED Gold-certified headquarters on Eighth Avenue. Cushman & Wakefield represented TD Bank with FirstService Williams for M1.

Green Buildings Top List of First Quarter Leasing Transactions

Tue

Apr

by Stephen Del Percio

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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.