Energy misers - Westfair Communications

A start-up energy consulting and construction company with national ambitions will make Yonkers its headquarters while providing cost-saving energy conservation solutions for residential and commercial customers in New York City and the lower Hudson Valley.

Advanced Home Performance Solutions L.L.C. has leased 4,000 square feet of office and warehouse space from Manhattan-based Heights Real Estate at 578 Nepperhan Ave., home of the Nepperhan Business Center and YOHO Artist Lofts. The company”™s location within a state Empire Zone and federal Empowerment Zone will qualify it for tax credits, refunds and exemptions and other potential financial incentives.

Company principals and brothers Jason and Joshua Martin will be joined by public officials and business leaders at a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house at the new headquarters at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4. The Martin brothers, identical twins, will invest earnings from their contracting business in Hollywood, Fla., Blueprint Roofing, in their innovative start-up business here, Jason Martin said.

The company initially will focus on contractual work for the state Energy Research and Development Authority”™s Smart Program, inspecting homes and recommending energy-saving improvements to low-income residents in the five boroughs and in Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties. The company, which Martin described as “paperless” and decentralized, will expand into higher-end residential and commercial and light-industrial energy performance solutions as the brothers try to build a national company, he said.

For commercial clients looking to go green and save on energy costs, “We”™re offering turnkey solutions where we do everything in-house,” from applying for available grants to setting up project financing to installing energy-saving systems. Martin said the company has hired an engineer certified as a Level 3 energy auditor whose recommend conservation measures will be designed to save businesses from 30 percent to 60 percent on energy bills, with a return on investment within three to seven years.

Regarding the Texas-raised brothers”™ choice of Yonkers as a business location, Martin said, “We actually chose Westchester before we chose Yonkers. We”™re not in Westchester by mistake.”

With an abundance of single-family homes affording employees on-the-job training in a county that also is culturally diverse, “It actually is a great environment for what we”™re doing,” Martin said. “It”™s duplicable in other areas, both high-end and low-end. That really made Westchester very attractive to us.”

Martin said the company wants to be a part of the ongoing redevelopment of Yonkers. “We want to come in and offer the $20- to $25-an-hour jobs and salaries of $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 a year that will actually help redevelop the area.”

Advanced Home Performance Solutions will have 10 employees at the start, Martin said. The company plans to add a 25-member sales force and 75 three-person labor crews within 12 to 18 months, he said.