Step 10:Florida’s First LEED-Platinum Offices
Wouldn’t it be nice to do business in an office building you knew was truly sustainable?
Sure would be nice to work in that kind of building, too.
Well, thanks to the efforts of Mariner Asset Management, LLC, a real estate investment, development, and management firm based in West Palm Beach, Florida, daydreams like those may become a reality soon. The company recently announced the site plan approval for The Hills of Lake Mary Professional Centre, an eco-friendly development in Lake Mary, Florida.
This 72,000 square foot office complex will be the first of its kind in the state. It will be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum-certified and achieve carbon neutral status for its core and shell.
Mariner Asset Management sees this groundbreaking development as the start of a new trend in office building construction.
After all, not only will the building be environmentally-friendly. But, tenants will be able to save energy costs, as well.
The core and shell of The Hills of Lake Mary Professional Centre will focus on three major green initiatives as their green steps:
- a sustainable site
- reduced water and energy consumption
- generation of energy on-site
The sustainable core and shell will help tenants and building owners achieve goals from LEED certification up to zero net energy consumption for their business operations.
Reductions in water consumption will result from rainwater collection cisterns for irrigation and drought tolerant plantings. In addition, captured rainwater will be used in toilets and low-flow plumbing fixtures. (Reclaimed water from the City of Orland will be used to offset rainwater storage during drought events.)
Reductions in energy consumption will be achieved through advanced mechanical and building systems, such as EBS concrete walls that reduce the impact of thermal gain.
Energy generation on-site will center on photovoltaic solar systems on the building and site.
“This project presents a paradigm shift for commercial real estate development,” says Mark Wojnar, co-founder and CEO of Mariner Asset Management. “By setting these goals at the onset of design, we are able to meaningfully reduce the costs of implementing the technologies that will achieve our goals to a level which justifies the cost.”
That will translate into cost-savings for tenants.
“This strategy will lead to significantly lower occupancy costs of our tenants downstream,” Wojnar continues. “What we are doing at Lake Mary will eventually become the development standard for this type of project in the U.S., although it may seem groundbreaking at this time.”
The Hills of Lake Mary Professional Centre was designed by Gensler, a global architectural design, planning, and strategic consulting firm.
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