Page 18AA —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— December 3-December 16, 2014
E
veryone wins with
the new Commercial
Green Building Code
and Executive Order 13514’s
50% reusability standards
coming for commercial
buildings and for federally
owned and leased buildings.
Environmentalists will see
buildings reused instead
of dumped in the landfill.
Building owners, according
to a Case Study by Turner
Construction, save $110 per
lineal foot over demolition
cost when remodeling. New
construction will cut time,
labor and materials. The
IRS even allows tax benefits
equivalent to $3 to $10 per sf
of floor space. Investors add
8.1% ROE to the building.
Green Zip is a technology
advancement so major that it
effects and benefits the whole
industry from the architect to
installer. The “Game Changer
for Commercial Real Estate”
to quote the EVP of Hines, a
Premier Developer.
Green Zip is removable/
demountable drywall tape.
Conventional drywall tape
seals the wall and makes the
interior inaccessible to chang-
es or reuse – or what the IRS
calls a Structure. The only
way to change the interior
structure of a building, once
sealed, is demolition. Every
few years, whether leased
space or corporate buildings,
most of the interior is demol-
ished and
sent to the
landfill
making
room for
the new
tenants’ or
executives’
needs.
According
to a case
study by
Turner
Construc-
tion, with
GZ, you can reuse most of
the interior of the building
because you can Deconstruct
(Not Demolish) the drywall,
studs, interior doors and glass,
etc. and reposition it for the
next use. No more overtime
labor cost working nights and
weekends because of the dust
and noise. No more moving
drywall and other components
up and down the elevator and
paying for disposal. No more
having to buy all new parts.
According to the study, the
percentage of reuse depends
on how experienced the crew
is. At first, the crew produced
75% reuse of the Gypsum
Panels (nearly 100% of studs,
head tracks, frames, etc). As
the crew gained experience,
the reuse progressed to 85%
and excelled at 95%. A 4-min-
ute video made for the IRS
of the demounting process
is at
/
green-zip.html. The Turner
Study is downloadable on the
same webpage. According
to the study, the savings for
reuse verses demolition was
$110.19 a lineal foot for the
first attempt of 75% reuse.
As Hines said “the Game
Changer in Commercial Real
Estate.”
Savings can reach $300 to
$500 per lineal foot, depend-
ing on executives’ salaries.
And I know I just raised some
eyebrows. Another study, done
by McGladrey Accounting, ref-
erences facility managers who
have other tenants on the
same floor or corporate offices
that have executives working
on the same floor, usually are
relocated because of the dust
and noise of demolition. With
GZ, all the executives hear is
the distant sound of reversing
drills taking apart the struc-
tures, reducing or eliminating
the need to relocate anyone.
We have covered facility
managers/corporate reuse cost
savings. In fact Barry Lynch,
IFMA Fellow in his class on
Leadership and Strategies
at its National Convention,
showed Green Zip to be
the “New Normal “ for
Management Strategies.
Time schedules are reduced
with self-adhesive GZ com-
pared with conventional dry-
wall tape. There is no need
to wait the 4 hours to 2 days
drying time for the first mud
coat needed with conventional
drywall tape. Plus, the second
person needed with conven-
tional tape to smooth out the
bubbles produced with the
auto taping tool is now, with
GZ, applying the top coat of
quick-set mud, accelerating
installation time.
I was with a major contrac-
tor this week and he said GZ
might be part of the answer to
the construction labor short-
age. If Green Zip can acceler-
ate time tables to complete
the job, they might be able to
do more jobs because at pres-
ent they don’t have enough
workers and have to put jobs
off.
Besides the reusability, time
and labor savings above, tax
benefits is another area that
makes GZ affordable and prof-
itable for the building owner.
McGladrey says the tax ben-
efits are equivalent to saving
$3 to $10 per sf in floor space.
Real Estate review says GZ
adds 8.1% ROE. LEED Study
says GZ diverts 70% from
landfill/GHG.
The next part of the
“whole” industry I mentioned
is the architects. Frank Little,
the Green Zip inventor, a
former top Gensler Architect
who taught Construction
Technology at Texas A&M,
can help architect designs
achieve the most reusabil-
ity and tax benefits for each
building. For one client,
adjusting the design changed
tax benefits alone from $3
million to $10 million for the
same building!
GZ provides all the tape
needed for the whole building
to maximize reusability but
only charges an install license
fee of $14 to $18 per lineal
foot of GZ Partition (NLB
wall). For every $1 of license
fee there is $5 to $10 in tax
benefits alone. One Fortune
50 client received $170,000
in tax benefits per floor for
$24,500 per floor license.
s
Les Simpson
Deferred Tax
Benefits Inc.
GZ provides all
the tape needed for
the whole building
to maximize
reusability but only
charges an install
license fee of $14
to $18 per lineal
foot of GZ Partition
(NLB wall). For
every $1 of license
fee there is $5
to $10 in tax
benefits alone.
