sustainable architecture

It’s been a relatively flat start for commercial real estate leasing activity in New York City so far in 2012. And – in what the Wall Street Journal is calling the local office market’s “toughest test” since the 2008 downturn – three new speculative, LEED-hopeful office buildings are slated to come on line in 2013. Together, One World Trade Center, Four World Trade Center, and 51 Astor Place will deliver 6 million square feet of new space into the Manhattan office market. According to Cassidy Turley, that would be the most new space delivered in a single year since the late 1980s.

The extent to which green attributes play a role in leasing and sales premiums for commercial properties has been a longstanding debate. And much of the evidence one way or another has been purely anecdotal. So consider this article as another in that thread. But it’s nevertheless interesting that all of the towers featured in the Wall Street Journal piece – from the World Trade Center and Hudson Yards mega-projects to the boutique trophy 7 Bryant Park, 51 Astor Place, and 510 West 22nd Street – are, or will be, pursuing LEED certification. The increase in LEED-EB: OM applications from older office buildings could be a welcome byproduct of the value that the new construction market continues to see in the LEED label...