8B — February 24 - March 9, 2017 — Environmental/Green Buildings — Owners, Developers & Managers — M id A tlantic
Real Estate Journal
www.marejournal.com
E nvironmental /G reen B uildings
By George Crawford, Green Partners A Perfect Storm is heading our way
T
here is a Perfect Storm brewing that will put even more pressure
the sidewalk to pounding a lap top keyboard and checking out with an on-line “Click” at Ama- zon instead of a “Card Swipe” at a local store around the corner. Real Estate Taxes? Get ready for some sticker shock numbers and don’t forget to have your Tax Certiorari’s number at the ready on a post- it next to your phone. Now you will need to add a newcomer to the list - your electric rates. For NYC buildings rates are about to increase in a big way. Why? Indian Point is shut- ting down and with it goes the cheap power that is about to be replaced with not-so cheap
or tax assessment will deter- mine the amount of taxes due to be included in the upcoming the tax bill - as of July 1, 2017. In terms of addressing (protest- ing) any assessment increases (assessments are based on 45% of market value), this is not a do-it-yourself project. Given the complexities and the dollars involved, the remedial step is to quickly - very quickly - engage a Tax Certiorari. Traditionally these firms charge based on their success, so your interests are aligned. The next order of business for Con Ed customers is to ad- dress the imminent increase in electric rates. Indian Point is currently an important sup- plier of inexpensive power to the metropolitan area. One of the two Indian Point reactors is now scheduled to cease opera- tions 2019 and the remaining reactor in 2020. With no in- expensive replacement power “identified” (translation – not available), rates are going to rise – without question. Now is the time to offset these rate increases by introducing en- ergy saving measures. In terms of researching appropriate measures, go to the recently issued report entitled “New York City’s Energy and Water Use 2013 Report”. This Report includes a comprehensive com- pilation of Energy Saving mea- sures with investment payback periods which are applicable to buildings regardless of location. Two of the measures included in this report are virtually fool- proof with quick paybacks and can be readily duplicated across a portfolio of buildings. These measures include: 1) Stand- alone hot water production, and 2) Upgrading to LED lighting. Each of these measures have paybacks in the two year range or a 50% return on the cost of the project investment. Stand-alone hot water pro- duction is very efficient and will save on both fuel and electric. The savings from lower levels of electric and fuel consump- tion will result in a two year payback in terms of covering the overall cost of the project. As an additional benefit, it will also allow the building boiler to rest off-season. The advantages of allowing a boiler to rest for extended periods includes less boiler maintenance because of fewer hours of operation and longer useful boiler life. As for LED upgrades, build- continued on page 10B
power. For buildings in New Jersey, the PSEG Sewaren plant was taken offline after Superstorm Sandy and still is waiting on replacement. Taxes up, rents down and utilities up – not a good story for any build- ing – commercial or residential, hence a Perfect Storm. Do not allow your building’s bottom line to be blind-sided by these negative trends. Take the time to develop viable strate- gies to minimize the potential impact of increases in building expenses. Our recommended approach is to focus on remedial steps that have a high prob- ability of success and that can
be duplicated across multiple buildings - so that the time and effort invested is maximized. The first order of business is to address current increases in Real Estate Taxes. For NYC buildings, Peter Blond, Esq. of Brandt, Steinberg, Lewis & Blond, LLP advises that the Notices of Property Value are normally mailed out to property owners by theNYCDepartment of Finance in mid-January. Then there is a very limited pe- riod of time to file a protest. For most NYC buildings, the tax protest filing period will close this year on March 1, 2017. This Notice of Property Value
on the bot- tom lines for most build- ings – actu- ally negative pressure - as bottom lines ge t l i ght e r when build- ing expenses
George Crawford
get heavier. Recent negative trends for buildings with retail stores at ground level include the “Shop Until You Drop” syndrome. This is moving away from the traditional pounding
Green Partners is your one-stop energy efficiency consultant. We offer low cost solutions to help meet compliance requirements for PlaNYC Greener, Greater Buildings legislation.
• Local Law 87 - Energy Audits and Retro-Commissioning • Local Law 84 - Benchmarking and Energy Star
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