In one of their rare turns in the gbNYC spotlight, Jamestown Properties is acquitting itself well. Jamestown recently announced a commitment to do up to $10 million worth of green retrofits on its entire U.S. building portfolio. Given the size of Jamestown’s $4 billion portfolio, that’s a lot of buildings, with such major New York City properties as LEED Gold-hopeful 1250 Broadway and Chelsea Market among them. While Jamestown isn’t doing this out of the goodness of its Multinational Corporate Heart — they’ll make their money back through energy savings and higher rents and sale prices — their choice carries with it a number of heartening potential effects. In the Times, Alison Gregor explains the possible curve-bending effects of Jamestown’s decision to green its fleet.
Archive | Manhattan
Top Green Office Leases in Manhattan: 2009
By Stephen Del Percio on February 25, 2010 in Green Leases, Leases, Manhattan, New York City, Transactions
5 of the 20 largest leases signed in Manhattan in 2009 (as reported recently by the New York Observer) were inked in green buildings. GRELJ takes a closer look at each of these deals to draw some anecdotal conclusions about the current state of New York City’s green commercial real estate market.
Zone Defense: Streetsblog on Greening NYC Zoning
By David Roth on February 23, 2010 in Hudson Yards, Manhattan, New York City, Urban Planning, Zoning
Noah Kazis does a pretty tremendous job limning the gordian knot of issues surrounding New York’s zoning policies and politics, but he paints a favorable picture of the Bloomberg administration’s ultra-ambitious zoning work overall — nearly one-fifth of New York City has been re-zoned since 2002, and generally it has been re-zoned fairly thoughtfully. In the instance of Hudson Yards (pictured), for example, the city’s decision to essentially create a new neighborhood was predicated on the extension of the 7 train. Not all the development has been that wise, of course. “Even while the Bloomberg Administration has zoned for growth to be centered around transit, it has also closed off the possibility of more intensive transit-oriented development,” Kazis writes in part one. “The overall effect is positive, but it could be even better.” It’s a story gbNYC readers already know: this is a very green city, but it’s also one in which some very real green accomplishments are tempered by agencies that sometimes seem to be operating at cross purposes and the hugely powerful (and hugely regressive) influence of Real Estate Mega-Developers.
How Green Was My Cubicle: What To Make Of Green Work Spaces?
By David Roth on February 15, 2010 in Brooklyn, Dumbo, Manhattan, Market Analysis, New York City, Tribeca
Your author’s career-long journey of itinerant, grousy keyboard-for-hire disillusionment has given me… well, something. I am an excelloent typist, and the Wall Street Journal belatedly gave me an unflattering stipple portrait of my own. Oh, and also: I have compiled, in my mind, something of a treasury of “isn’t work just the worst” quotations from various writers. There are certainly more resonant ones than Don DeLillo’s characteristically terse (if uncharacteristically straightforward) assertion in Underworld that, “capitalism strips the nuances from places.” But look around you, at the office in which you are likely reading this post. The dim cubicles and hissing flourescents and dense industrial carpeting. Dude’s got a point, right? That plain aesthetic fact makes Sunday’s New York Times article about green office spaces that much more interesting a read. For pure voyeurism, it’s hard not to admire the super-green work spaces at TriBeCa’s Green Spaces and Dumbo’s Green Desk. Considering that the office from which I do my posting doesn’t even recycle, it’s virtually impossible for me.
Number Six Sludge: Now Available in Manhattan’s Greenest Neighborhood, Somehow?
Battery Park City RegattaWell, this is kind of surprising. Last week’s post on the continued use — and impending legislation to curtail said use — of mega-nasty heating sludge Number Six heating oil pinpointed upper Manhattan and the South Bronx as the neighborhoods in which ol’ Number Six was most commonly used. And while that’s still true, the Downtown Express reports that six buildings in Battery Park City, Manhattan’s most ostentatiously green residential neighborhood, are using Number Four or Number Six oil to heat their buildings. This isn’t in violation of BPC’s vaunted green building code (and isn’t mentioned in LEED’s guidelines, either), mostly because it seems like no one really thought about it until recently. Presumably, that’s going to be changing soon.
Carbon Offset Firm Inks Sublease at 10 East 40th Street
By Stephen Del Percio on August 4, 2009 in Bryant Park, Leases, Manhattan, New York City, Transactions
CarbonNeutral’s new 5000-square-foot space at the Mercantile Building is more than double the size of its old home at 527 Madison Avenue. Asking rents for the space were $40 per square foot; the Lansco Corporation represented CarbonNeutral and Newmark Knight Frank the sublessor.
1095 Sixth Avenue Deal Offers Snapshot of Local Green Commercial Market
By Stephen Del Percio on July 20, 2009 in 1095 Sixth Avenue, Bryant Park, Leases, Manhattan, Market Analysis, New York City, Transactions
The stock trading company Instinet’s pending deal at 1095 Sixth Avenue is important to consider from a variety of commercial real estate perspectives.
Leasing Activity Continues at LEED Gold-Certified 7 World Trade Center
By Stephen Del Percio on July 8, 2009 in 7 World Trade Center, Ground Zero, Leases, Manhattan, New York City, Transactions
7 World Trade Center is 83-percent leased as demand for space at New York City’s first LEED Gold-certified office building persists.
Indian Restaurant to Battle Boston Properties at 250 West 55th Street
By Stephen Del Percio on May 20, 2009 in LEED-CS, Litigation, Manhattan, Midtown West, New York City
The owner of an Indian restaurant in Midtown has filed a lawsuit against Boston Properties in connection with excavation and foundation work for the (currently suspended) LEED Gold-hopeful 250 West 55th Street project.
Green Buildings Top List of First Quarter Leasing Transactions
It’s anecdotal, of course, but LEED-certified buildings are replete in Collier’s list of New York City’s largest office leases signed during the first quarter of 2009.
