Damaged in the 9/11 attacks, the Deutsche Bank Building is being deconstructed.

New York’s construction attorneys are watching the deconstruction of the unoccupied Deutsche Bank Building with piqued interest.  Heavily damaged in the 9/11 attacks, the building was supposed to come down by 2005.  The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the firm managing the deconstruction, is working with the contractor, Bovis Lend Lease, to maintain adequate levels of employee safety throughout the process and remain on schedule.

“The goal is to improve efficiency, but not at the sacrifice of safety. Sometimes easier said then done, but we’re all optimistic,” said New York construction accident lawyer David Perecman.

All throughout the deconstruction process, the LMDC retained the services of environmental consultants to conduct environmental testing of the building materials, possible toxic hazards, dust, and mold.

Upon completion, the vacant lot will be incorporated into the new World Trade Center development.

As an industry, the practice of deconstruction is new to many in the risk community such as attorneys, insurance brokers, surety professionals and underwriters.  Workers compensation and OSHA do not have documented safety manuals specifically for deconstruction and the insurance community does not have adequate actuarial data to effectively assess the risks to people and property and set adequate rates for deconstruction projects and contractors.

I am currently working with the state of Ohio’s Bureau of Workers Compensation (one of three monopolistic states for WC) and several insurance companies in drafting safety guidelines, educating underwriters as to the unique risks of deconstruction and providing research on successful deconstruction projects to date.

Although the majority of deconstruction initiatives to date deal with residential properties that may be vacant or abandoned, we look to expand the opportunities for responsible demolition into large scale commercial, industrial and municipal projects.  Any construction activity on an existing structure that generates waste is a candidate for deconstruction.

By utilizing our network, a building owner can endeavor to minimize their contribution to our local construction and demolition debris landfills.

The network continues to grow and we are optimistic about receiving the support of our regional policy makers that share our zero waste vision.

An abandoned house on East 78th Street

The newly incorporated Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp (The Land Bank) holds great promise for helping cities reutilize distressed properties, rebuild neighborhoods and shore up declining tax bases.  As a partner with cities and other units of government, lenders and individual property owners, the Land Bank has the potential to restore housing markets, rebuild communities and change development patterns on a regional scale, targeting future growth and development to core areas. 

The overriding question community leaders have asked themselves throughout the evolution of the Land Bank is “What decisions can we make today that will shape our future?”  By re-imagining our region as a stronger, more vibrant place of opportunity, we have the unique ability to learn from our past and recent failures to drive our regional economy to a new tomorrow.

Leading off the discussion was Land Bank chairman and Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis.  A true public servant, Mr. Rokakis has led the office of the County Treasurer since 1997 and has succeeded in expanding programming, enhancing tax collection procedures, increasing revenue and services all while saving taxpayers dollars by reducing staff levels.  With his sights set on the plague of vacant and abandoned properties throughout the area, Mr. Rokakis worked with the team responsible for the drafting and subsequent adoption of Ohio HB 294 that was passed in December of 2008. By creating the entity through a state charter, the new corporation can act more expediently in the acquisition of vacant and abandoned properties than any other entity. The Cuyahoga County Land Bank is an active land bank in that it has money to buy land that contains an existing structure. Mr. Rokakis stated that the long term goal of the Land Bank is to become the “go-to place in the county where property can be deposited.” Recognizing the slow and agonizing nature of an organization with such visionary goals, the Land Bank maintains very clear and defined goals for 5, 10 and 15 years into the future to preserve the organization’s mission and focus.

Also speaking on the panel was Gus Frangos, President of the CCLRC (aka The Land Bank). Mr. Frangos detailed the challenges of creation and unique operations of the County Land Bank. Recognizing the challenge laid out before him, Mr. Frangos is eager to attack the formidable beast and change the landscape of the community forever. “You can’t stabilize anything until you stop the hemorrhaging” said Mr. Frangos as he discussed the current goals of the Land Bank. One very differentiating characteristic of the Land Bank, as explained by Mr. Frangos, is the desire to become a fully independent, self sufficient, revenue producing entity. In order to grow the operation to become what they leaders envision, the unit must produce a reliable revenue stream so as to be leveraged and bonded. That is going to be very tough when you are given the hand that they have been dealt.

The panel also included Sally Martin, Housing Manager for the City of South Euclid, Terry Schwarz, Senior Planner at Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, John Wilbur, Assistant Director of the Cleveland Department of Community Development and Paul Alsenas, Director of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission.

These public forums are meant to provide the community with insight into the steps being taken to address our region’s most urgent problems. To hear a podcast of this and other previously held forums, visit the college’s website at http://urban.csuohio.edu/forum/.

 image credit: Care2

“]

This solar array is one element of the Cleveland Environmental Center’s green building attributes. This 1918 bank building is the first commercial, historic green building retrofit project in Ohio and is a national model. [ Ohio City neighborhood, photograph by David Beach

Each panelist provided insight into their unique experiences within the green building marketplace. Mr. Bisacquino explained in no uncertain terms that green building is definitely here to stay. “This is no passing fad,” said the national President. “The longer it takes you to understand the terms, concepts and technologies associated with high performance building, the more likely you will be in building yourself into obsolescence.” NAIOP, now called the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, advocates on behalf of its members including developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial and mixed-use real estate.

Mr. Reichenberger is the Sun Edison Managing Director of Utility Sales & of the REIT Landlord GreenRoof Solar program. As managing director, he is responsible for all of Sun Edison’s business activity, business relationships and offerings to REIT’s, landlords and utility customers. Sun Edison is preparing a major push into Ohio as state legislative efforts encouraging and mandating the use of energy from renewable sources will force coal-based utility providers to either invest in large scale solar/wind/biomass/geothermal generators or buy renewable energy from companies like Sun Edison. The new laws create the opportunity for Public-Private Arrangements or Power Purchase Agreements that open the doors for solar installers to generate revenue from different sources. In this arrangement, the solar installers will own and install a PV (photovoltaic) array on the roof of a building they do not own. They will lease the roof space from the owner at a fixed rate over the course of the contract. The solar company will sell power generated from the array to the building owner also at a fixed rate for the life of the contract. The solar company will also sell renewable energy certificates to the public utilities and take the renewable energy tax credit (equal to 30% of the array’s hard costs). Not a bad deal, right? DDR thinks so and back in January contracted with Sun Edison to begin the installation of solar on all of their rooftops for all of their properties. That’s over 200 shopping centers and over 30 million square feet. Not bad.

Mr. Berning has been involved in “green” building since before it was as cool as it is today. Heapy Engineering has been involved in over 125 LEED registered and certified projects. That’s more than have been registered in all of the state of Kentucky. Mr. Berning serves as the Director of Sustainable Design for Heapy and is directly involved in the training of the largest staff of LEED Accredited Professionals in the state of Ohio. As co-chair of the Dayton Regional Green Task Force, Mr. Berning’s experience with sustainable design projects in both the public and the private sectors will show, when properly planned and executed throughout the entire design and construction process, that every project can be environmentally responsible, energy efficient AND cost effective. Several of the firm’s recent accomplishments in both the public and private sector identified the actual, realized cost savings of certain design elements. For example, on-site storm water management resulted in the elimination of significant storm drain infrastrutcure, saving over $250,000 from the initial plan.

Ms. Childs represents Pittsburgh’s Green Building Alliance, an organization that began the same year as the US Green Building Council. Though still an affiliate and not an official chapter, the real estate and developement community in Pittsburgh and throughout western Pennsylvania has embraced high performance green building. Supported by a generous philanthropic community and an active membership, the Pittsburgh GBA conducts educational sessions on green building, hosts regional networking sessions, funds the development of innovative green building products, offers research services and technical support for green building projects and advocates for the economic benefits of green building. GBA championed Pittsburgh’s new city ordinance requiring all publicly (TIF) financed development to achieve LEED-Silver certification by the US Green Building Council.

Tom West, Senior VP with CRESCO Real Estate and board member of the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the USGBC moderated a lively Q&A session where audience members asked the panelists about the future of green building, perceived vs. actual costs, public policy initiatives and best practices within this emerging sector of the real estate development industry. The evening’s attendees were lively and optimistic for the future of their industry as Ohio takes a leadership role in the advancement of green and sustainable high performance building.

These are the slides from a presentation that I created addressing the importance, marketability and risks of green, sustainable, high performance building.  Please contact me directly to learn more at www.deconmanagement.com.