BPU To CRE: 'We Want To Spend To Help Owners Improve Property'

EDISON, NJ–Commercial real estate and the energy market are “joined at the hip,” attendees at the NAIOP session called “Re-Energize Your Buildings!” were told Wednesday, and it was strongly suggested that owners will face increasing public pressure to cut consumption.

On the other hand, New Jersey board of Public Utilities ombudsman Gary Finger outlined a host of programs that provide grants and other support to property owners who want to invest now in improving their buildings’ energy-efficiency.

“There are a lot of programs being under-utilized,” said Finger. “Frankly, our goal is to spend money in allocations to property owners who want to improve their property.”

He said that the BPU is currently setting up programs to assist municipalities in reaching out to local businesses to make sure they know that free “benchmark” reports on a building’s energy consumption patterns are available.  Also, Finger outlined current programs that finance installation of energy-saving devices for buildings with no out-of-pocket expense to the landlord.

Furthermore, Finger and other panelists – including Josh Avidan of Avidan Management, a landlord representative –described how owners who choose to make their own investments in improving energy efficiency can parlay BPU grants into quicker pay-offs, and much greater savings on utility costs.

Jeffrey M. Miller, who focuses on energy solutions as a broker for Lee & Associates, talked about how the energy and real estate markets are “joined at the hip,” pointing out that commercial office and industrial real estate consumes half the energy used in the U.S.  In New York City, 80 % of energy is consumed by real estate users, he said.

Brad Molotsky, general counsel to Brandywine Realty Trust moderated the NAIOP panels at Wednesday’s event at the Sheraton Edison. He and Greg Hale of the Natural Resource Defense Council discussed the rising wave of regulations designed to encourage property owners to focus on energy efficiencies.

The states of New York and Pennsylvania now require property owners who use larger amounts of energy to publicly disclose their consumption records. Also, Washington, D.C.; Boston, San Francisco and Seattle mandate disclosure.

Hale said that 26 municipalities in every area of the country are considering mandates. In Philadelphia and New York City, the results of an annual or biannual “tune-up” of energy-monitoring devices – is also required disclosure.

“The intent behind his mandate is not to shame people,” said Hale. “It is to identify poor-performance buildings and then provide resources to the owners to fix that - generally with a five-year payback schedule.”

David Galante of the GSH Group, who spoke as part of a discussion on “The Latest Technology for Office and Industrial Buildings,” said, “Every building should be retrofitted for energy, every one or two years – even if it’s just little things like making sure the monitors are adjusted to that the lights are off when no one is there.”

Molotsky chimed in with, “Does anybody here drive a car without a speedometer or a fuel gauge? Same thing.”