WASHINGTON, DC-Heritage Properties expects to deliver 327 Ballenger Center, a four-story, 120,765-square foot office building in Frederick, MD, in nine months. It has much going for it: it is located close to Fort Detrick and on a site that can offer up to 400,000 square feet of office space.

In general Frederick has become a hot market, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s Bernie McCarthy and Amanda Davis, who have been tapped to lead the leasing efforts. Of the 148,000 square feet of office space in the Frederick county pipeline, 77.7% is already pre-leased. Then there is this: they also say that it will be the first building designed to Gold LEED specs in this submarket.

Increasingly, as the market returns and development picks up, green building credentials have once again become in vogue. Not that the case for sustainable development ever went out of fashion; however as development in general dried up during the recession, so, too, did green building.

Another example is JBG Cos.’ 800 N. Glebe, a 10-story, 316,000-square-foot, class A office and retail complex in the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor. The project, designed to Gold LEED specs, is expected to deliver in March 2012. It will feature 30,000-square-foot floor plates and 28,000 square feet of retail. Retrofits, as well, can be counted in this trend. 1133 15th St., NW, a 42-year old class B office building, was recently awarded Gold LEED certification for Existing Buildings–Operations and Management, the first class B office building in the District to achieve this distinction, according to CB Richard Ellis. The 96%-leased building is controlled by Clark Enterprises.

Nor are these projects limited to office. In Fairfax, VA, Concord Eastridge’s Mason Inn Conference Center and Hotel, located on the George Mason University campus, recently became the state’s first Gold LEED hotel.