Wilton Corporate Park gets LEED Gold certification
On Danbury Road in Wilton, Davis Marcus Partners has created a corporate environment it hopes will lead Fairfield County into a world where the environmentally responsible owner gets the tenant.
Wilton Corporate Park gained major tenants Nielsen Co. and Sun Products Corp. last year in its two newest buildings, 40 and 60 Danbury Road. Now it has achieved its goal of getting the U.S. Green Building Council”™s Gold ratings for meeting its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards.
Tom Nichols is a member of the Southwestern Connecticut Green Building Council and president of the 4Elements Group, an environmental conservation consultancy in Norwalk. He says commercial buildings are estimated to account for 40 percent of total global emissions.
“One of the biggest parts of LEED is simply education,” said David Fiore, a principal at Davis Marcus Partners. “All of our professionals became certified through the process and we are better at our job today because of that.”
Taking the lead
Davis Marcus Partners is a joint venture between The Davis Cos., with offices in Norwalk, Boston and Miami, and Marcus Partners in Boston.
The two new buildings, the second phase of a four-building project that began in 2006, added another 243,000 square feet of office space to the 33-acre corporate park.
The park was bought by Davis Marcus in 2000 and includes the refurbished 50 and 64 Danbury Road, which also have been LEED certified. The total corporate park comprises more than 1 million square feet of class A office space and is also home to Ryan Partnership, Connolly Consulting and AIG Financial Products.
In Connecticut, the Energy Conscious Blueprint program developed by Connecticut Light and Power Co. and United Illuminating Co., encourages LEED certification through rebates. Davis Marcus received $10,000 toward its effort. The program also offers up to $2 per square foot to owners for designing a more energy-efficient building, as long as they meet LEED energy-modeling specifications.
The park”™s 40 Danbury Road was the first commercial building in Fairfield County to meet the council”™s Gold LEED “Core and Shell” certification requirements.
“Oftentimes less is more and encourages a team to create a building with far less mechanical equipment, focusing on building orientation, an efficient building envelope and superior construction,” said Nichols. “Ideally, this premise is what the industry is moving toward.”
In addition to using green building supplies, Davis Marcus was able to reduce energy costs by 10 percent, divert 95 percent of construction waste from landfills to recycling plants, reduce water use to 31 percent below the U.S. Energy Policy Act standards and increase air quality.
Thinking long-term value
The vision of Davis Marcus is to attract tenants who are just as committed to green building. Fiore said that while tenants do appreciate the benefits of a green building, it has not become a make-or-break item on their space checklist.
Once the core and shell have LEED certification, tenants are responsible for getting their respective offices certified. Fiore said not one tenant opted to get certified.
“When the tenant moves into a LEED-certified building, already certified by the developer, it is relatively easy to certify the tenant space,” said Nichols.
Fiore said the greatest issue for tenant certification is cost. “It”™s not the cost to do the work ”¦ it is the cost (of) getting certified,” Fiore said. “When you have to pay $30,000 to $50,000 just for the consultant, that”™s where it becomes more difficult.”
Fiore said the initial pricing from LEED consultants in 2006 was as much as $150,000. “There were very few people who were qualified to do it, and there still aren”™t a great amount,” he said.
He said the industry is starting to wake up and is educating itself about the environmental and financial benefits. “Oftentimes with these processes the money you spend over time is repaid in a percentage,” said Fiore. “But it”™s also that when we go to resell or re-lease and the next generation of tenants has come along, you”™ll find we have the systems in place and those choices we”™ve made now have become great decisions. We have to think about long-term value.”
A different mindset
Shortly after completing Wilton Corporate Park, Davis Marcus finished a Platinum LEED-certified building in Boston.
“Boston”™s different,” said Fiore. “One of the reasons LEED is less of a factor here in Fairfield in checking off the boxes is the tenant mix. In the Boston market there are a lot of high tech and engineering firms and they are very much on the cutting edge of what”™s going on, they seek this type of building out. What LEED promotes is much more significant to those types of businesses.”
Fiore said the mix of financial services, marketing and consumer products companies that make up the majority of the Fairfield County market and seek class A commercial space would not necessarily make a decision based on the presence of a LEED rating.
“You”™re not necessarily driving against the industry markets with LEED here, but there you are driving for it,” said Fiore. “It”™s wanted. The question is, are you willing to pay extra for it?”