Empire State Building Gets $120M Green Makeover

The Empire State Building has lost some of its luster after 78 years, and its owners are hoping to draw in more tenants with a $120 million dollar green makeover. Energy savings is just icing on the cake. Property owners and business managers are realizing that environmental improvements don’t just make sense financially, but also improve the image of the building.

From The Huffington Post:

“In a good market, we’re going to get the best rents for the best tenants,” said Anthony E. Malkin, who leads a real estate group that owns the Empire State Building. “In a bad market like we have now, we’re going to get tenants when other buildings won’t.”

“This isn’t just a ‘We are doing the right thing’ movement,” said Marc Heisterkamp, U.S. Green Building Council’s director of commercial real estate. “In the end, the numbers pencil out.”

At the Empire State Building, Malkin proposed a top-to-bottom renovation that included a $13.2 million investment in new green technologies. The goal was to sufficiently reduce greenhouse gases without spending more than he could justify to his investors.

What the owners settled on was a series of upgrades that include retrofitting all 6,500 windows. Under every window, radiators will be padded with extra insulation. The building’s lighting, cold water and ventilation systems also will be upgraded.

The renovation should take 18 months. Afterward, the owners expect an annual energy savings of $4.4 million, enough to pay off the new technologies in about three years.

HuffPo reports that other buildings across the U.S. undergoing similar changes include the Christman Building in Lansing, Michigan and the Sears Tower in Chicago. We’d love to see this trend continue to spread across the country, regardless of whether the building owners care about the environment or just want to make more money. Green greed is a good thing!

Link [Huffington Post]

Photo credit: Flickr user paulaloe

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