NEW YORK CITY-Newly recapped 230 Park Ave. is locked in a fight to the finish in the EPA’s Battle of the Buildings, a nationwide contest to see which building can cut its energy costs the most. And Monday Properties’ EVP and COO Brian Robin tells GlobeSt.com that he expects a win.

“To be the only building in New York City that a multi-tenant office building, absolutely,” Robin told GlobeSt.com of the building’s chances, following remarks in 230 Park Ave.’s lobby. Robin was there with Robert Sauchelli, the ENERGY STAR national program manager and Christopher Cayten, LEED AP managing director at CodeGreen Sustainable Building Solutions.

Sauchelli said that he thinks that tenant interest in green buildings is increasing, as they realize potential cost savings. “A building that’s green in terms of energy efficiency--an ENERGY STAR building like this one--also means that the occupancy costs are reduced or at least being well managed,” he said, adding that greening “puts people back to work--from engineers to electricians.”

Robin said that Monday Properties was able to reduce energy consumption in the landmark building by 10 percent over the past four years. “For those of us in the industry,” he said, “we know 10 percent is a huge milestone and that’s before you layer in what is another—which is how you do that when you raise the occupancy and raise the density of your building.”

For Monday, the effort made good business sense and was, in some ways, necessary given their tenant make-up. “The more you gravitate to larger, public organizations and, to a large degree, multi-national organizations, it clearly elevates to a higher priority and it’s been a higher priority longer,” he said. “In this building we have many multi-national, international, foreign-based companies so it’s automatically central criteria for them.”

The competition winner of the competition will be announced in early November, from among a pool that includes an eclectic mix of buildings, from houses of worship to data centers. Last year’s winner, Morrison Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, won after reducing its energy consumption by 36% in one year--a tall task to match.

Instant Insights /

230 Park Ave. in Battle for EPA Buildings Title

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