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COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— December 16, 2015-January 5, 2016
Green Building
TheNewEnergy Improvement
District launched a statewide
Commercial Property Assessed
Clean Energy program – provid-
ing commercial property owners
a unique mechanism to finance
energy efficiency, renewable
energy and water-conservation
improvements.
The C-PACE program offers
commercial property owners the
opportunity to spread energy
and water project costs over a
term of up to 20 years and repay
them through an assessment on
their property tax bill, with no
upfront capital outlay.
“Commercial buildings cur-
rently account for about 20 per-
cent of Colorado’s energy use.
Colorado’s Commercial PACE
program offers a financial tool to
help spur energy efficiency and
renewable energy investments in
our state’s building infrastruc-
ture, providing long-term utility
savings, while stimulating the
economy,” said Paul Scharfen-
berger, chairman of the New
Energy Improvement District
board.
The program provides financ-
ing for a variety of improve-
ments, including new heating or
cooling systems, lighting, water
pumps, insulation, solar panels
and other renewable energy proj-
ects. Typical long-term C-PACE
financing covers 100 percent of
a project’s cost and is repaid, for
up to 20 years, in semiannual
payments that are structured as a
regular line item on the property
tax bill. When a property is sold,
the PACE assessment stays with
the property and transfers to the
new owner, who, in turn, enjoys
the ongoing utility cost savings
associated with the project.
Sustainable Real Estate Solu-
tions was competitively selected
as the Colorado C-PACE admin-
istrator andwill oversee an open,
competitive lending model that
makes it possible for a wide
variety of capital providers to
participate. All projects will be
financed entirely with private
funds, allowing local lenders,
national banks and PACE capi-
tal providers an opportunity to
finance projects.
“C-PACE provides commer-
cial and industrial building own-
ers with an attractive way to
finance capital-intensive build-
ing modernization projects. The
resulting energy savings typical-
ly outweigh the annual assess-
ment payment, thereby enabling
cash-flow-positive projects,” said
Brian J. McCarter, CEO of SRS.
Eligible properties include
office, retail, agricultural, non-
profit and industrial buildings;
multifamily properties with five
or more units; and hotels. Proj-
ects must be located in counties
that have opted to participate
in the program. Boulder County
has opted in, and several other
counties around the state already
have indicated that they plan to
participate.
Other News
n
The Ignacio Elementary
School recently was certified
LEED Gold by the
U.S. Green
Building Council.
Ignacio’s
prekindergarten
through fifth grade elementary
school is the second building in
a districtwide master plan led by
RTA Architects.
The master plan
included the renovation of three
existing school buildings and the
design of a new middle school.
In the second phase of the master
plan, the existing intermediate
(grades 4-6) building was reno-
vated into what is now Ignacio
Elementary.
Existing and new classrooms
were designed as flexible learn-
ing spaces with enhanced
acoustics, daylighting through
tubular daylighting devices and
expansive exterior windows,
and the ability to accommodate
current and future technology
upgrades. The high-performing,
sustainable facility also uses a
geo-exchange system, a roof-
mounted 50 kilowatt photovol-
taic array, LED lighting through-
out and low-water native plants
for landscaping.
n
A survey from the
Urban
Land Institute,
Colorado in
2015: A ULI Survey of Views
on Housing, Transportation and
Community, reported that a sig-
nificant number of Colorado res-
idents face barriers to a healthy
and active lifestyle due to com-
munity design and land-use pat-
terns that make walking, cycling
and recreational opportunities
difficult. Despite Colorado’s rep-
utation as one of the healthiest
states in the nation, 52 percent
of the survey’s respondents said
that it is too far for them to walk
to shopping and entertainment,
and 42 percent said that the bike
lanes in their communities are
insufficient. In addition, 34 per-
cent said that their communities
lack outdoor spaces for exercise.
The survey identified low-
income and Latino residents as
the demographic groups most
likely to experience these barri-
ers and feel a sense of dissatis-
faction with their communities.
Nearly half (49 percent) of Lati-
nos reported that their neighbor-
hoods lacked outdoor recreation-
al spaces, compared with 31 per-
cent of white respondents, while
58 percent of Latinos responded
that their neighborhoods lacked
sufficient bike lanes, compared
with 40 percent of white resi-
dents. Among respondents mak-
ing less than $25,000 per year, 47
percent said their neighborhoods
lacked outdoor spaces, while 54
percent said more bike lanes are
needed in their communities.
Among other significant find-
ings in the report related to hous-
ing and community choice and
satisfaction were:
• Millennials in Colorado are
more likely to move than the
population as a whole, with 70
percent saying a move is some-
what or very likely within the
next five years. Twenty-nine
percent of Coloradans said they
were very likely to move.
• Thirty-two percent of Colo-
radans currently live in the sub-
urbs, but only 22 percent would
choose to live there in five years
if they could live anywhere.
•Renters expressed the highest
rate of dissatisfaction with their
housing options, with 26 percent
saying there were somewhat or
very dissatisfied, compared with
15 percent of all Coloradans.
n
Colorado State University
completed its latest green park-
ing initiative as part of its vision
to remain the greenest university
in the U.S.
The installation of a sensor-
based parking guidance system
from Indect USA enhances the
LEED-certified garage, which
also has been designated a Green
Garage Demonstrator by the
Green Parking Council.
“CSU is committed to sus-
tainability and the Indect sen-
sor program will make a vital
contribution to our efforts to
make our campus greener,” said
Doug Mayhew,
associate direc-
tor of parking and transportation
for the university. “By guiding
parkers directly to open spaces,
the parking guidance system
minimizes the amount of time
spent searching for parking. The
program will also dramatically
decrease the amount of vehicle
exhaust emitted in the structure
and reduce the amount of unnes-
sasary fuel wastage.”
The new parking guidance
system features the installation
of parking sensors in each of the
645 covered spaces and moni-
tors all 870 spaces in the univer-
sity’s only parking structure. A
space indicator light is installed
on a dropper at the front of the
parking space, offering drivers a
clear view of where open spaces
can be found and what type of
parking is permitted in an indi-
vidual space. Different colors
indicate each space’s status and
user group: green for available,
red for occupied, blue for handi-
capped parking and purple for
electric vehicle charging stations.
The lights are clearly visible to
drivers when they enter each
level so they can quickly deter-
mine if a space is available on
that floor. A monument-style
sign is installed at each of the
garage entries to advise custom-
ers of real-time parking availabil-
ity as they approach the garage.
The sensors collect data about
length of stay, occupancy and
usage for each of the differ-
ent user groups at the garage,
which the university will use to
enhance its parking policies and
procedures.
“CSU’s parking sensor pro-
gram demonstrates the versatil-
ity of single-space sensors,” said
Dale Fowler,
director of Indect
USA. “Sensors are well-known
throughout the industry for the
parker convenience and man-
agement benefits they provide,
but the sustainability advantages
are just as important. Colorado
State University is already recog-
nized as the greenest university
in the nation and this program
will push that bar even higher.”
Colorado State University cur-
rently is developing a second
parking garage, which also will
be equipped with Indect sensors.
That garage is slated to open in
August.
s
The Ignacio Elementary School was certified as LEED Gold. See Other
News.
