WASHINGTON, DC-The recession relegated financing for greenretrofits to the backburner--at least in terms of public industrydiscourse--but that doesn’t mean that landlords have abandoned suchprojects. Most large building owners are pushing forward withenergy efficiency projects and even building overhauls by hook orcrook, as commercial banks are unable to fund suchprojects. Panelists at the Urban Land Institute’s annualconference, now in its last day, talked about the problemslandlords face--along with their, sometimes, makeshiftsolutions--in pushing forward with these projects.

One issue is that not all tenants are inspired to seek out suchmeasures, said Cavarly Garrett, vice president at JP Morgan. “Wedon’t see tenants demanding energy efficiency, but when we take theproactive step of offering a discussion on the subject we seeindividuals step forward to find out how their companies canparticipate.”

Not all tenants can be characterized as this passive. CharlesLeitner, chairman of Rreef, countered he sees significant tenantdemand for energy efficient retrofits, especially when theoperational savings translate into rent reductions. “I can tell youthat Deutsche Bank, as an occupier of real estate, is drivingchange through the system because of its demands.”