As more cities enact clean energy plans and pass mandatory benchmarking ordinances, building owners and investors across the country are increasingly looking toward net-zero energy (NZE) as their next goal to continue reducing carbon emissions in the built environment.
With the over $40 million that Greenprint members report investing on ESG projects in 2018, many elements of those investments (such as lighting retrofits, occupancy sensors, and even building envelope upgrades) can be considered when incorporating sustainability into leases. Landlords and tenants continue to bridge the gap and overcome the split incentive— the issue that arises when one party pays the utility costs and the other pays for building upgrades such as a more efficient building envelope, HVAC, or other base building systems. Green, or “energy aligned” leasing, is a way to overcome this.
This adaptive use transformed a two-story, 48,000-square-foot commercial building and ornate movie theater lobby into 23 loft apartments, four neighborhood-serving retailers, and a large banquet facility that fills the former lobby. The structure is the most prominent building along the Seneca Street corridor in south Buffalo, New York. The renovation was completed by a local developer and financed by a local bank, together with historic tax credits, local tax incentives, and grants.
The Owyhee is a 139,424 square foot mixed-use building in downtown Boise, Idaho that combines 55,683 square feet of office space, 36 studio and one-bedroom apartments, 23,913 square feet of restaurants and convenience retail, and a ballroom for special events. The building was built in 1910 as a grand hotel, and is fondly remembered by many local residents. Its redevelopment included the first newly built apartments in downtown Boise in decades, and established that a market existed for luxury apartments and creative office space. Many local lenders and investors passed on the Owyhee’s renovation, but out-of-town investors saw its potential both during redevelopment and after completion.
Jolene’s First Cousin is a two-story, 6,600 square foot retail and residential building in Portland, Oregon with three small retail spaces, two one-bedroom apartments, and 13 bedrooms leased to a transitional housing service provider. Its equity investors, both accredited and unaccredited, accepted a lower current return in order to contribute to the building’s social mission.
One of the largest private investments ever made in the central region of Portugal, Dolce Vita Coimbra, its developer’s response to the city of Coimbra’s 2002 international request for proposals for the city’s “Eurostadium” project, is a mixed-use complex that transformed the underground concourse of an existing municipal football (soccer) stadium into a four-level regional shopping center and linked this to a new recreation center, a multiuse pavilion, and 202 apartments. The complex seamlessly integrates shopping, sports, leisure, and cultural activities with residences within the central area of Coimbra, providing the city’s 405,000 residents with a wide range of new facilities and services.
South Campus Gateway is a visionary collaboration between the Ohio State University, the city of Columbus, and neighborhood stakeholders in an effort to transform a 7.5-acre (3 ha) tract that straddles the university campus and a distressed, low-income neighborhood. Developed by the not-for-profit Campus Partners, the $150 million dynamic mixed-use development is the signature project in the organization’s decade-long planning effort to revitalize the University District area. Using a complex layering of financing, the project comprises 184 apartments, 98,000 square feet (9,105 m2) of office space, and 249,000 square feet (23,133 m2) of retail stores, including an eight-screen cinema, a dozen restaurants, a university bookstore, and an organic grocery.
In August 2003, Kemper Development Company (KDC), owner of the successful, adjacent Bellevue Square and Bellevue Center retail projects, took on the challenge of turning around the Lincoln Square project—a massive risk in the uncertain economic climate of the early 2000s. After four years of redesign and innovative construction, the 1.4 million-square-foot (130,064-m2) mixed-use project, replete with 300,000 square feet (2,787 m2) of retail; a 28-story, Class A office tower; 148 luxury condominiums; and a 19-story hotel, has resuscitated a moribund development and brought much-needed density to a suburban environment. The two towers rise from five stories of underground parking and a three-level retail podium, featuring a luxury cinema, restaurants, home-related stores, and upscale entertainment.
The Liberty Hotel/Yawkey Center project seamlessly blends two uses not commonly associated with each other—a hotel and hospital—on a three-acre (1.2-ha) shared site. In addition to the unconventional partnering, the development includes an adaptive use of the Charles Street Jail, a historic landmark at the northern base of Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. Ultimately, a common planning vision between the developer and the owner united the disparate functions, resulting in a $150 million, 300-room luxury hotel and 440,000-square-foot (40,877-m2) state-of-the-art medical outpatient facility.
A product of a public/private endeavor among Arthur Hill & Co., the city of Evanston, and Northwestern University, Church Street Plaza is a $181 million mixed-use development around transit with 174,000 gross leasable square feet (16,165 m2) of retail, restaurant, and entertainment space. Considered the catalyst for downtown Evanston’s decade-long resurgence, Church Street Plaza took advantage of a creative financing and partnership model to revitalize the urban core. The 7.2-acre (2.9-ha) project serves as a gateway between downtown Evanston and Northwestern University and also includes an 18-screen cinema, a 178-room hotel, a 204-unit condominium building, a 195,000-square-foot (59,436-m2) office building, and a 1,400-car parking garage.