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by Courtney Iseman
January 28, 2010
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Releases and Publications
Today Michael Shilale, AIA, LEED was the guest
speaker in a national webinar for over 70 commercial
real estate brokers. The monthly series brings
experts from around the nation to this interactive
program. The event was moderated by Charles Frankel,
MBA, CPA, EcoBroker at KW Commercial Realty.
Michael Shilale was asked to speak about the impact
of sustainable design on the real estate market.
Major players in the commercial real estate market
cannot overstate the impact of green on this
industry. Hines and RREEF, two global real estate
companies controlling assest valued at over 100
billion dollars, confirm transformation is
happening.
“Green building is fundamentally altering real
estate market dynamics.”
“Clients don’t think it’s Class A unless it’s
green.”
The benefits to green commercial real estate are
many. Numerous studies have shown an increase in
rent and occupancy ratios along with a decrease in
operating costs; green buildings also have greater
valuation and offer higher returns on investments.
Listeners wanted to know how to define green
buildings, why green buildings are important and how
to help clients ‘green’ their buildings and
projects.
Michael summarized how to define a ‘green’ building,
and how there are several rating systems out there –
LEED being the preeminent one. He also described how
commercial real estate agents can assist their
clients in identifing low cost or cost neutral
improvements.
Energy audits and benchmarking can help identify
improvement opportunities, and are value added
services agents can bring to their clients.
Benchmarking buildings only requires a few minutes
securing the building’s utility data and uploading
it to Energystar.gov. This free service will compare
the energy use in your building to similar buildings in
your climate area to see how well or poorly the
building performs relative to its energy use per
square foot. The average existing commercial
building uses twice the energy per square foot as a
brand new, code compliant building. Compared to
‘green’ buildings most of our existing commercial
buildings waste a tremendous amount of energy.
That’s bad for the owner’s operating budget but
makes an old building a prime candidate for an
energy saving improvement project.
Energy Saving Performance Contracts are one way to
implement capital improvements that save energy at
no cost to the client. The cost for the work is
offset by the energy savings realized. The energy
savings are guaranteed. If the savings are not
realized you are reimbursed the difference. If you
realize more savings than anticipated you get to
keep the additional dollars.
Many other strategies were discussed and Chuck and
Michael had what was described as a lively,
interesting and informative discussion.
If you would like to view the slides for the
presentation you can
click here.
Michael Shilale Architects, LLP
(MSA), an eight person architectural engineering
firm founded in 1991, is committed to protecting and
preserving the environment through their design
work. We help our clients solve their building
problems, protect their assets and investments,
build under budget, and realize their vision. MSA
serves a municipal, commercial, residential and
educational client base, including Rockland, Orange,
Sullivan, Ulster and Nassau counties, in New York,
as well as Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Essex
Counties in New Jersey. For more information, please
call 845-708-9200, or visit their website at,
www.shilale.com |
