Architecture/Engineering: Is green the new black? Some developers think so - The Business Review (Albany):

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Just a decade ago, when government and environmentalp groups started topromote “building and encouraging Leadership in Energt and Environmental Design—or LEED—certification, most developers It’s a fad. It’s not practical. It’s never going to pencil out financially, because tenants are never going to pay the higher leas e rates to make up for the highef materials andconstruction costs. But, now—within the last year—ths grousing has all but stopped insome circles. Greehn building has caught on nationwide.
There are LEED projects in 50 states and69 countries, accordingh to the , the nonprofit that oversees the certification Meanwhile, there are several projects around the Capitapl Region. In Albany, The , the law firm and the -op—to name a few—have registered LEED projects. In supermarkets and have registeredLEED projects. In Glens rehabbed a downtown building that’as going for gold status unded the LEEDrating system. At Saint Rose, getting that certified green statuss will costabout $2.6 million on its new $16 millio n Massry Center for the Arts.
While a $300,000 geothermal heatinh system was among the elements that added to the it is expected tosave $43,000 a year in energy The green features of the project, too, are expectedd to pay for themselves in less than five said Marcus Buckley, the private college’s vice presidenf of finance and administration. Projects like Saint Rose’s are not unique to the Capitap Region. Neither is the talk of how greem features pay for themselves within afew years. Brian Owendoff, vice president in the Portland, office of , a national real estatwe developer, said the acceptancee of sustainable features goes hand in hand with theirrreduced costs.
Ten years ago, developers and thei r clients would likely proceed through a traditional design and engineering then treat sustainable features as an he said. The cost of re-engineeringg the project alone would typically make the sustainablsefeatures unaffordable. “But if you’re designing it out of the blockx for being asustainable building, then the premiuj cost is much lower,” he said. With eco-friendlyg building making more sensed on thebottom line, there’s growing interest.
A 2007 nationalp green building survey conducted by for the National Real Estat Investor found that 84 percent of corporate tenants and 77 percentg of all developers in the study expectrto own, manage or lease at least some greej properties within the next five “For the first time, just in the last 12 we’re actually seeing tenant proposals for space where they’re asking the question, ‘Whag are your sustainability said Douglas Howe, CEO of , a commercialk real estate developer in “You’re starting to see major corporations say, ‘we’rs green, we’re sustainable.’ And now theidr shareholders ...
are asking what they’r e doing about it. So the corporations are steppingt up.” But he added: “Developers still resist change and innovatio nuntil they’re forced to recognize it and deal with it—until their customers demand it. So we’re at the tippinh point right now.” Even so, with costs comintg down, Mark Breslin, vice presiden t and general manager ofin Albany, estimatea that some element of green construction now plays a part in 70 percent of all projectsx in the region. “There’s really no compellin reason anymore not to go said Breslin, whose company has greebn projects under its belt.
“We’ve seen a tremendous amoun of increase in the lastcoupld years. I can’t think of a projecg that isn’t doing some form of Turner Construction, incidentally, practices what it preaches: It had greenh in mind before it leased new offic space at Corporate Woodsin Albany. “Wee know that the owners are selecting product s based onsustainability components,” Breslin