Page 161 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

140 CHAPTER 5

angle, since they were among the first brokers in the country to become LEED accred-
ited. But even with a product unlike any other on the market and an excellent location,
lease-up was slow going.
In addition to the challenges of leasing a green retail shopping center, we found it
necessary to share with the city building departments the lessons we were learning
about sustainable design. We had an odd list of wishes for the various city departments
that would have to provide the approvals and permitting on this project. In an effort to
reduce the amount of impervious surfaces and mitigate heat island effects, we were
looking for parking ratios at 4.0 to 4.5 cars per thousand square feet—well below the
required parking ordinance ratio of 5.5 cars per thousand square feet for a shopping
center of our size. It took time to explain why this was important to us and to get over
that hurdle. In the end, however, the tenants provided the real challenges we faced dur-
ing design and construction of this sustainable shopping center.
One early challenge had to do with our landscape plan, which called for significant
tree coverage on the site to help reduce the overall heat island effect by providing
shading. Trees, some tenants felt, would interfere with sight lines, visibility, and over-
all customer brand recognition. And that was one of the simpler challenges.
Of much greater significance in our quest to build green was the issue of dealing
with each tenant’s prototype, which typically called for a very specific look using a
formulaic design and predetermined list of materials that could not be changed. Luck-
ily for us, the majority of our scope of work was focused on developing a building
envelope and base systems with significantly greater energy efficiency. We intended
to have our tenants modify their respective prototypes only to the extent required by
our selected LEED program. Even though changes in most cases were minor, lengthy
(sometimes extended) negotiations often ensued. There were times when we simply
had to say If you want to be in our center, these are the criteria you will need to abide
by. It’s odd when an 800-pound retail giant goes toe-to-toe with a local bantam-
weight developer that refuses to give ground. None of our tenant prospects seemed to
fathom that we meant business. A few walked. Most, however, worked with us. The
values-centric orientation of our company helped enormously in enabling us to stand
our ground. So, too, did the fact that ours was the premier retail site in the city. If the
mantra of a green real estate company is values, values, values, it’s still important to
remember the old real estate cliché about location, location, location. We were fortu-
nate to have the right locale for this first green retail development. Otherwise, we
might not be able to tell this story.
There was also the challenge of creating a group of dedicated professionals around
our team who would not only share our excitement of developing a green retail proj-
ect but would also be at least familiar with, if not knowledgeable about, what such
a green development would entail. Our own staff was not a problem. Something like a
dozen of my colleagues had been through LEED training and become accredited, as
had I. But what about our architect, someone who was expert at delivering conven-
tional retail space but knew nothing of the LEED program? Our general contractor,
landscape architect, and civil and mechanical engineers? Everyone seemed excited
with the cutting-edge nature of our project, but just how committed they were, no one