Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal — Owners, Developers & Managers — December 20, 2013 - January 16, 2014 — B B uilding S ervices & S uppliers Buro Happold develops a benchmark for energy usage Can a building that uses more energy also be more efficient? Yes, says Buro Happold
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ficient or inefficient based solely on how much energy it consumes. By contrast, BEEC measures a building’s energy use against economic performance indicators to give a more complete picture of a building’s productivity -- hence its overall efficien- cy. For example, a building might use less energy, but its tenants do not contrib- ute as much to the regional economy. By this definition, another building that uses more energy might have an exponentially greater eco- nomic performance, making it more efficient. When observed from this more comprehensive vantage point, some buildings that were previously thought of as energy hogs are revealed
to be using energy more ef- ficiently than many low-en- ergy buildings. Buro Happold used proprietary research from CoStar Group to deter- mine economic performance of commercial buildings in New York. “Energy efficiency is framed in a very black-and-white way – either a building has low energy intensity or it is considered wasteful. With this research, we can now see whether or not commer- cial buildings are putting energy to good use. It allows us a much more nuanced and complete picture of what’s really going on with energy use,” said Steven Baumgart- ner, PE, CEM, HBDP, LEED AP, associate at Buro Hap- pold, who led the research investment decisions.” CoStar Multifamily offers features for a broad range of multifamily real estate professionals. Investors and developers can analyze key factors that drive supply and demand to make informed decisions on potential new projects and investments. Lenders can leverage CoStar’s inventory of sales comps and for-sale inventory with power- ful analytics and forecasting tools to make more accurate and informed lending deci- sions. Portfolio managers can leverage CoStar’s sales comps, market analytics and forecasting tools to more ac- curately measure portfolio performance and potential. Together with CoStar ’s Property & Portfolio Research (PPR) subsidiary, which pro- vides forecasts and advisory services to owners and insti- tutional investors, clients can analyze multifamily markets at the macro level, and zoom in to view the most granular details using the same re- searched and verified data. Founded in 1987, CoStar conducts expansive, ongo- ing research to produce and maintain the largest and most comprehensive database of commercial real estate infor- mation. Our suite of online services enables clients to analyze, interpret and gain unmatched insight on com- mercial property values, mar- ket conditions and current availabilities. n
team, along with Jim Cole- man and Amelia Aboff of Happold Consulting, Buro Happold’s strategic consult- ing arm. City officials, building own- ers, and members of the AEC industry measure a building’s energy use on a per square foot, per year basis. This is known as its Energy Use Intensity (EUI). EUI is a very useful metric in determining a building’s performance but it only tells half of the story. “Buro Happold has been a pioneer in sustainability for decades, and now we are intensively involved in the challenges of the 21st centu- ry,” said Craig Schwitter, PE, BSCE, MSCE, principal. “We are a multidisciplinary firm
that brings a comprehensive approach to problems at multiple scales – from the individual building to the region. This groundbreaking research will have a major impact on the way that ener- gy use is discussed and regu- lated as we meet the ongoing challenges of an increasingly complex world.” BEEC data is currently limited to New York City commercial buildings. With more funding, Buro Happold hopes to expand the scope of the research to include more cities, and with greater de- tail. “This is a huge first step toward redefining energy efficiency,” added Baumgart- ner, “and we’re excited to take this research to the next level.” n
EW YORK, NY — Dissatisfied with the one-dimensional na-
ture of defining energy ef- ficiency as it relates to com- mercial buildings, interna- tional engineering firm Buro Happold developed a metric that links energy use to economic performance. The Building Economic Energy Coefficient (BEEC) could help many commercial build- ing owners whose properties use a lot of energy (input), but add economic value to their cities and regions (out- put). This metric can also be a game changer that influ- ences how local governments create policy to monitor the energy use of buildings. Most systems of measure- ment deem a building ef-
Sage announces partner- ship to distribute & support eTakeoff products
CoStar launches newmultifamily offering WASHINGTON, DC — Co- Star Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSGP) announced the launch of CoStar Multifamily(TM) , an enhanced capability within the CoStar product suite that harnesses the power of CoStar’s comprehensive research for the multifamily sector. ages and more. Key features in CoStar Mul- tifamily include: Building details and qual- ity -- Asking rents, effective rents, concessions and occu- pancy rates -- Over 1 million sales comps dating back to 1995
fuller takeoff solution. “We are pleased to partner with Sage to bring estima- tors a family of products to
IRVINE, CA — Sage North America announced that it is partnering with eTakeoff to provide esti-
ETakeoff can be used as a stand-alone solution, the first step to automating the estimating process or along with Sage Estimating to further improve bidding efficiencies.
-- Site-verified construc- tion locations and delivery schedules -- Floor plans and high-reso- lution property images -- Highly detailed informa- tion on amenities, unit sizes and mixes -- A team of 50 economists providing market analysis and forecasting in 210 markets This robust data can be queried and analyzed in Co- Star’s desktop software and on CoStarGo(R), CoStar ’s revolutionary iPad app, to provide valuable analytic information and insight on market trends. “CoStar Multifamily fills a great need for comprehensive data in the multifamily sec- tor,” stated CoStar founder & CEO Andrew C. Florance . “Multifamily is a $2 trillion asset class and is currently the hottest sector in commercial real estate. Over $95 billion of transactions were completed in this sector during the past year. Whether you are buying, selling, underwriting or devel- oping multifamily properties, CoStar Multifamily should be your number one source for making confident multifamily
With CoStar Multifamily, the same powerful informa- tion tools used by office, retail and industrial profession- als are now available for multifamily professionals. Following a massive effort by CoStar’s industry-leading research team, CoStar now offers the largest and most comprehensive multifam- ily database in the U.S. The CoStar database provides coverage on nearly 300,000 apartment communities with five or more units for a total of over 16 million apartments, which is believed to be more than twice the number of properties found in any other multifamily data source. The data is proactively verified and maintained on an ag- gressive update frequency by CoStar’s 1,200-plus research- ers. Subscribers to CoStar can search and analyze multi- family properties in stunning detail. CoStar is capturing information such as multi- family-specific submarkets, building quality, effective rents, concessions, occupancy levels, ownership, unit sizes, bed/bath mix, amenities, im-
meet all of their electronic takeoff needs,” said Curtis Peltz, CEO of eTakeoff. “Moving between eTakeoff solutions is easy and mini- mizes disruption and the need to learn new software as companies further im- prove their estimating and bidding processes.” Companies can mix and match the use of eTakeoff Ad- vanced and eTakeoff Premier software among their esti- mating staff dependent on the specific roles of its team members, offering further flexibility to match the of- fering to a company’s specific workflow needs. Sage and eTakeoff will also develop integration between eTakeoff and Sage Estimating in the first half of 2014 to further increase the estimating ef- ficiency of companies using both solutions. Recognized for its solidity and innovation, eTakeoff has been selected byMcGrawHill for use in its Dodge Construc- tion online plan room. n
mators with a new collec- tion of electronic takeoff products within the Sage portfolio of estimating solu- tions. ETakeoff can be used as a stand-alone solution, the first step to automating the estimating process or along with Sage Estimating to further improve bidding efficiencies. “We are excited to add eTakeoff to our portfolio of electronic takeoff solutions,” said Jon Witty , vice presi- dent and general manager of Sage Construction and Real Estate. “This partner- ship enables us to provide our customers with a full array of best-of-breed solu- tions to increase their takeoff productivity and their bid confidence.” The eTakeoff collection of electronic takeoff products offers estimators a cost-effec- tive way to get started with electronic takeoff capability and, when ready, to adopt more advanced takeoff ca- pabilities by upgrading to a
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