We caught up with Bryn Cinque to talk about brokering LEED certified buildings.
What is GVA Williams?
We are a commercial real estate consultant representing owners looking to dispose of real estate and tenants/buyers looking to acquire office space.
Where are you located?
Parsippany, New Jersey.
Can you give our readers some insight into brokering LEED commercial space?
One example is a new building being constructed in downtown Summit at 120 Summit Avenue. It is a former medical group building, and will be a LEED certified building at the gold level. We are seeing increased interest in LEED certified buildings from companies, partly due to the energy crisis. One of the benefits of a LEED property is that it has greater efficiencies as well as greater health benefits. If your building is more efficient, obviously you're going to be able to save on energy costs.
What do you need to do differently when you're trying to sell these buildings?
The main thing is to educate the tenants because there really isn't necessarily a savings in terms of the rental rate of the property. The savings is in the energy, and it takes a lot of work to educate the tenant as to the benefits of a LEED certified building and how there is actually a cost savings.
Do you find that tenants are coming to you and asking for LEED certified properties?
That's probably overstating it a bit. We're seeing it more from the larger, multinational companies which have other reasons to consider LEED certified buildings. PNC Bank is a great example. They've rolled out a program in which all of their new retail branch offices will be in green buildings. I think more of the larger New York companies focus on LEED. Smaller companies don't necessarily have the same need to go into a LEED certified building. Obviously, the larger companies want to be socially conscious, and that's less important for the small professional firm in many cases.
Specifically at 120 Summit Avenue, a lot of the activity is as much a part of the location and proximity to downtown Summit. The LEED certification is certainly a benefit, but I think it would be overstating it to say that they are seeking us solely for the reason that it's a LEED certified building.
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