Major Tenant Build-out During Certification Period
I am working administering the LEED EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. certification of a 14 story office building that is 70% occupied. We have begun the EA 12 month performance period. There is a major possibility that there will be a couple new tenants signing leases within the month. Their subsequent build-out is what troubles me. The HVAC is already provided for each floor, but other than that it is bare bones. We have completed documentation (but have obviously not submitted) for many credits that require tenant involvement or tenant spaceTenant space is the area within the LEED project boundary. For more information on what can and must be in the LEED project boundary see the Minimum Program Requirements (MPRs) and LEED 2009 MPR Supplemental Guidance. Note: tenant space is the same as project space. information. We are trying to stay on the developed timeline that had the EA PP starting in September 2009 and the remaining PPs starting in June 2010.
I know this a broad question, but what effect will a tenant moving in have on the certification process? FYI, I have not previously worked on an EB project that involved changing occupancy levels. Any resource suggestions that I would help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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Major Tenant Build-out During Certification Period
Kevin,
The minimum building occupancy for LEED Minimum Program Requirements was lowered to 50% last fall, so you should be fine as far as the LEED requirements are concerned. The USGBC has provided some guidance documentation on their website for how projects with lower occupancy (but still over 50%) should go about attempting various credits where occupancy matters.
To directly answer your question, I think the biggest potential challenges with your project are related to EAp2 and your Energy Star score:
1. You need to determine how to appropriately time-average your building occupancy over the 12-month period for Energy Star purposes. I'd recommend that you contact the Energy Star Portfolio Manager customer service center to learn more about their protocol. When completing your documentation, make sure to include a comprehensive narrative explaining how you derived the occupancy inputs for Portfolio Manager.
2. As you may know, construction fit-outs can be really energy intensive. You should think about how having these activities fall within your performance period might affect your building's Energy Star score , especially if your building currently has a score that is close to the compliance threshold of 69. It may be worthwhile to shift your 12-month performance period to begin after these new tenants have occupied their spaces.
Hey Kevin - some additional resources can be found here -
USGBC's Reduced Occupancy Guidance: http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=6292
Portfolio Manager change in occupancy guidance: http://portfoliomanager.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/portfoliomanager.cfg/php/en...
I'm curious, Kevin, how you solved this problem. We also have a multi-tenant building facing a significant ocuupancy increase, though many credits have already been completed (ie, the transportaion and occ. comfort surveys). Were you able to note this situation on the form for each impacted credit? Did GBCI accept that?
Thanks for the help?
I would like to know as well. We are starting a project that will have a tenant move in during the performance period and are wondering how to accomodate the changes in occupancy in the project.
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