Empire Building Challenge Partners

Fairstead is a purpose-driven real estate firm dedicated to building sustainable, affordable communities across the country. Headquartered in New York, with offices in Colorado, Florida, and Maryland, Fairstead owns more than 25,000 units across 28 states. Fairstead’s commitment to communities is realized through a comprehensive platform that leverages in-house expertise in acquisitions, development, asset management, design and construction, and property management.

Fairstead prioritizes energy efficiency, sustainability, and decarbonization wherever possible. We look forward to working with NYSERDA and our partners, Kelvin Systems & Inglese Architecture + Engineering, on developing a detailed roadmap for decarbonization and capital planning at one of the Savoy Park buildings – 45 West 139th Street – a 1,790-unit, rent-regulated campus-style complex in Central Harlem.

In the proposed building, we plan on reducing our overall energy use through deep and holistic carbon reduction measures. The project will develop a roadmap to reduce the baseline site EUI of 105 to target a 72% reduction in fossil fuels to ~21 EUI in 2035. If the roadmap identifies a financially and operationally viable path, knowledge from this effort will be used to expand the strategy to the remaining six Savoy Park buildings, and in other Fairstead properties as we work towards advancing the transition to a low carbon economy. 

Ascendant Neighborhood Development Corporation's (AND’s) mission is to empower and uplift the vibrant communities of Northern Manhattan. For over three decades AND has been dedicated to supporting the stabilization and growth of East and Central Harlem neighborhoods, while advocating for the preservation of affordable housing.

Several years ago AND committed to mitigating the processes that lead to air pollution, reliance on fossil fuels, and global climate change through good design, retrofits, and progressive energy practices for the AND portfolio as a whole. AND is a participant of the Mayor’s Carbon Challenge, in which they pledged to reduce total building emissions by 30% over ten years. 

Building on this commitment, in partnership with NYSERDA, AND has committed to significantly reducing on-site fossil fuels in three buildings through the Empire Building Challenge, including two of their All Saints Apartments properties located at 53 E 131st Street and 58 E 132st Street, as well as their Mt. Pleasant Apartments property located at 421 E 116th Street, consisting in total of 150 affordable dwelling units. For All Saints Apartments, the proposed projects will result in a total site Energy Use Intensity (EUI) reduction of 64% (relative to a 2014 baseline), with a 99% reduction in gas EUI and a 64% increase in electric EUI, resulting from electrifying the buildings space heating and DHW. For Mt. Pleasant Apartments, the proposed projects will result in a total Energy Use Intensity (EUI) reduction of 67% (relative to a 2014 baseline), with a 99% reduction in gas EUI and a 58% increase in electric EUI, also resulting from electrifying the building space heating and DHW. Targets will be fulfilled by the end of 2027. 

AND is committed to transparency and the sharing of project information for knowledge transfer and educational purposes and is looking forward to working with their technical solutions providers and NYSERDA on these efforts. 

HANAC is committed to decarbonizing Geroge T. Douris Tower, located at 27-40 Hoyt Avenue South in Astoria, NY, through the substantial reduction of on-site fossil fuel use and improved energy efficiency. This is the first step in the decarbonization of the broader HANAC portfolio which provides affordable housing to elderly residents in the community in addition to the citywide social services the organization supports.

By 2035, the building is expected to reach a site energy use intensity (EUI) of 56.6 kBtu/SF, representing a 54% reduction from a 2021 baseline. The building’s energy consumption is approximately 83% natural gas and 17% electricity. Through our decarbonization efforts we expect to reduce the consumption of natural gas at the building by 100%. As end uses become decarbonized, site electricity consumption will increase by 175%. The project team is equally committed to sharing information from the project to support future knowledge sharing and educational efforts.

Additional Information:

• The baseline year of 2021 was selected by SWA. After reviewing the Property’s benchmarking data, it was determined that this was the most representative of the building’s typical performance.

In line with RiseBoro’s mission to build and operate resilient and sustainable communities, we are committed to decarbonizing our Noll Street and Melrose Street Apartments properties, located at 43 & 63 Central Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. This will involve a substantial reduction of on-site fossil fuel use and the incorporation of Passive House design principles into energy efficiency retrofits covering the115,000+ square feet of affordable housing real-estate at the properties.

By 2035, the building is expected to reach a site energy use intensity (EUI) of 37.7 kBtu/SF, similar to the performance of a Passive House building, representing a 54% reduction from a 2021 baseline. The building’s current energy consumption is approximately 78% natural gas and 22% electricity. Through our decarbonization efforts we expect to reduce the consumption of natural gas at the building by 100%. Electrification of end uses will increase the electricity consumption by 107%. The project team is equally committed to sharing information from the project to support future knowledge sharing and educational efforts.

Additional Information:

• The baseline year of 2021 was selected by SWA. After reviewing the Properties’ benchmarking data, it was determined that this was the most representative of the building’s typical performance.

The Joint Ownership Entity NYC., (JOE NYC) is a non-profit conglomerate owner of low-income affordable housing throughout New York City. Since its founding in 2015, our non-profit members have contributed over 2,700 low-income rental units and committed over 1,000 units more.

Our current portfolio is over 2.4 million square feet. Our non-profit members include Saint Nick’s Alliance, Fifth Avenue Committee, Riseboro, MHANY, IMPACCT Brooklyn, Community Assisted Tenant Controlled Housing CATCH, Banana Kelly Community Improvement Agency, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Ecumenical Community Development Organization, Bridge Street Development Corporation, and Project FIND. Our members and the JOE’s leadership will continue preserving and building new affordable housing for all New Yorkers, while maintaining a commitment to sustainability and contribution to the city and state’s decarbonization targets. 
 
Through the Empire Building Challenge, JOE NYC is committing to significantly decarbonize the following assets in our portfolio: South Bronx Catch (1203 Fulton Avenue, 575 East 168 Street, and 865 East 167 Street), and 439 West 125 Street in Manhattan. For 439 West 125th, the proposed project will result in a total Energy Use Intensity (EUI) reduction of 56% (relative to a 2017 baseline), with a 96% reduction in gas EUI and a 43% increase in electric EUI, resulting from electrifying the buildings space heating and DHW. For 1203 Fulton Avenue, the proposed projects will result in a total EUI reduction of 62% (relative to a 2021 baseline), with a 100% reduction in oil EUI, 10% reduction in gas EUI and a 59% increase in electric EUI, also resulting from electrifying the building space heating and DHW. For 575 East 168th, the proposed project will result in a total EUI reduction of 57% (relative to a 2021 baseline), with a 100% reduction in oil EUI and a 58% increase in electric EUI. For 865 East 167th, the proposed project will result in a total EUI reduction of 56% (relative to a 2019 baseline), with a 100% reduction in oil EUI, a 10% reduction in gas EUI, and a 50% increase in electric EUI. Targets will be fulfilled by the end of 2027. 
 
JOE NYC is committed to transparency and the sharing of project information for knowledge transfer and educational purposes. 

Public Commitment to Carbon Reduction/Elimination

Chelsea New York Realty Company LLC affirms its commitment to working with NYSERDA and its partners to decarbonize the New York State multi-family building stock and attract the best and brightest solution providers and manufacturers to get the job done.

This commitment refers specifically to The Capitol, 776 6th Ave, New York, NY 10001. While only this building is being considered, we hope to utilize the techniques and information we obtain on other assets managed by our funds.

Chelsea New York Realty Company LLC is targeting to eliminate fossil fuels on-site by 2035 or sooner. This target applies to The Capitol only. However, we are seeking to explore decarbonization across the Real Estate Americas platform in an intelligent and economic way that enhances value across the portfolio.

The Capitol’s target is to nearly cut in half the baseline EUI while fully electrifying all systems by 2035. Target site EUI by 2035 is electric only EUI of 47.5, from the baseline electric EUI of 26 and gas EUI of 61.8. The building will take 2019 EUI, it’s earliest available data point, as the baseline EUI. 

Syracuse Housing Authority (SHA) is a public housing authority in Syracuse, New York, founded in 1933 that provides affordable housing for low-income individuals, families, seniors, and people with disabilities. SHA owns and or manages fifteen housing developments with 2,705 affordable housing units, as well as administrating Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) (formerly Section 8) throughout Onondaga County. SHA’s property portfolio includes 250 buildings consisting of high, mid, and low rises, stand-alone single-family homes, row houses, and multi-family walk-ups with over 2.9 million total square feet within the city of Syracuse.

SHA’s mission is to provide quality, safe and affordable housing, to create opportunities for residents’ self-sufficiency and economic independence, and to empower individual potential in an environment where people want to live, work, and build communities. As one of the largest providers of affordable housing in Syracuse, New York, SHA fully understands the challenges of maintaining multi-family buildings, especially considering the age of our property portfolio holdings. Therefore, we consistently seek initiative-taking strategies to preserve affordable housing, while simultaneously attempting to decrease our carbon footprint.

SHA in partnership with Cycle Retrotech, Taitem Engineering, and Hydronic Shell Technologies, looks forward to working with NYSERDA through the Empire Building Challenge for the development and implementation of a decarbonization roadmap for our project at 418 Fabius Street, a seven-story, 39,500 square feet, 54-unit designated senior/disabled building, constructed in 1953, in Syracuse, New York. Our project aims to achieve site energy use intensity (EUI) reductions of 50% from 2010 baseline (84.4 EUI) to target 42.4 EUI, by target year 2030, which will inform our overall goal of decarbonizing our portfolio. This building will be fully electrified by 2030. 

WinnDevelopment is one of the nation’s leading owners, developers, and managers of multifamily housing. WinnDevelopment acquires, develops, and manages affordable, senior, mixed-income, market rate, military, and mixed-use properties nationwide. WinnDevelopment is an industry leader and partner in sustainable development, renewable energy, and building science. We are dedicated to developing scalable and cost-effective energy solutions in affordable housing.

As an Empire Building Challenge (EBC) Cohort 3 participant, WinnDevelopment is committed to developing a Decarbonization Roadmap for Stovroff Towers, an existing senior living facility comprised of 120 studio apartments located at 471 John James Audubon Parkway in Amherst, New York. If selected for funding, WinnDevelopment will efficiently electrify Stovroff Towers, while transforming the building into approximately sixty-five low-income one-bedroom apartments. The decarbonization retrofit, including both envelope and HVAC and plumbing upgrades, is expected to achieve a site energy use intensity (EUI) of approximately 37. While the 2010 data for Stovroff Towers is unavailable, the project is anticipated to achieve at least a 50% reduction in site energy use upon construction completion, which is anticipated between 2026-2028, depending upon financing availability.

With approximately 1,800 mixed income rental apartments and over two million square feet of residential and mixed-use real estate in New York, with several thousand additional mixed-income housing units across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, this EBC project will serve as an important opportunity to help inform Winn and its partners’ efficient electrification efforts regionally.  

In addition to its goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its 10.1 million square foot portfolio by 2035, Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT) recently announced in its 2020 Sustainability Report [PDF] plans to target a 20 percent reduction of energy use intensity across the portfolio by 2024, and net-zero carbon emissions for the Empire State Building by 2030. ESRT has begun to develop and execute a roadmap with dozens of sustainability strategies to reach the aggressive goals tied to The Empire Building Challenge, which include measures like envelope improvements, HVAC upgrades, controls upgrades, and advanced technology overlays for performance optimization. Each of these measures will be individually and holistically considered based on past learnings, value proposition, innovation pilots, and ROI.

A Joint Venture comprised of Trinity Church Wall Street, Norges Bank Investment Management, and Hines

Hines and the Hudson Square Properties joint venture commit to make 345 Hudson Street carbon neutral by 2032. The building will reduce its site Energy Use Intensity (EUI) by 69% from 2010 EUI level by 2032. The EUI of the building in 2010 was 126 kbtu/SF, and by 2032, we commit to reduce the EUI to 40 kbtu/SF.  

Jonathan Rose Companies has committed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2034 at two Jonathan Rose Companies properties in Manhattan: Yomo Toro, an 89-unit affordable housing property located at 222 East 104th Street, and The Tapestry, a 185-unit mixed income, mixed-use apartment building with ground floor retail space located at 245 East 124th Street. The Company also commits to developing a carbon neutral building roadmap for each property that is anticipated to be owned beyond 2030 and integrate the interventions into the properties’ business plans. We aim to achieve site Energy Use Intensities (EUI) of 25.5 Kbtu/SF, which is 70% below New York City’s median site EUI for multifamily properties by implementing measures to reduce loads within the building through envelope improvements and aggressive energy efficiency and controls, while simultaneously improving indoor environmental quality by providing filtered fresh air with energy recovery. Heating, hot water, and laundry systems will all be powered by electricity.

L+M Fund Management and our partner, Invesco, are committed to decarbonizing The Heritage, a 3-building, 680,000- square foot mixed-use development with 600 mixed-income residential units, to a 0% emissions level by 2030. Completing this is expected to result in a site energy use intensity of 45 kBTU/SF, which represents a 54% reduction from the 2010 baseline.

Omni New York has committed to turning one of our properties, Whitney Young Manor -- a 195-unit affordable housing property located in Yonkers, New York -- carbon neutral by 2035. Whitney Young Manor’s first year EUI was 87.7 in 2012, with a current EUI of 96 for 2019. Our goal is to get Whitney Young from the current EUI of 96 to the target EUI of 50 or below by 2035. Omni has selected Bright Power, a leading energy and water management company, as our Empire Building Challenge partner to determine the suite of deep energy retrofit improvements for this property and incorporate these measures into the scope of a planned rehabilitation in 2022.

Rudin Management Company has committed to achieving carbon neutrality on a portfolio-wide basis by 2050. As a proud participant of the Empire Building Challenge, we are proposing to accelerate that goal in our three project buildings: 80 Pine Street, 355 Lexington Avenue, 845 Third Avenue. 80 Pine Street will target a site EUI of 30 Kbtu/SF, 355 Lexington Avenue will target a site EUI of 37 Kbtu/sf, and 845 Third Avenue will target a set EUI of 39 Kbtu/SF.

We are committed to exploring new building technology solutions as they become available and implementing those and other energy saving and decarbonization measures to work towards our goal of carbon neutrality for the three buildings entered in the Empire Building Challenge by the year 2035.

Silverstein Properties, Inc. will commit to carbon neutrality in two (2) existing buildings as part of the Empire Building Challenge: 120 Broadway (The Equitable Building), and 1177 Sixth Avenue (Americas Tower). As each building is very different in its architectural and MEP elements, the project team will be challenged to refine the low carbon design concept in order to apply it across all building types with varying characteristics and typologies. Each building is targeting carbon neutrality per the SPI definition by 2030. 120 Broadway will use the prescribed 2010 baseline of 78.5 and will target a 40% reduction in site EUI from the baseline year to a targeted 2030 site EUI of 47.1. 1177 Sixth Avenue will also target a 40% reduction in site EUI to 51.8 in 2030 but will use a 2014 baseline of 86.4 instead of 2010.

Vornado has committed, through its Vision 2030 roadmap, to reach net zero emissions portfolio-wide by 2030, through a combination of emissions reductions strategies from our buildings. The roadmap to zero emissions prioritizes energy efficiency, with a target of 50% below 2009 levels by 2030.

Amalgamated Housing Corporation (AHC) is an affordable housing cooperative that was founded in 1927 and is the oldest limited equity housing cooperative in the United States (amalgamated-bronx.coop). AHC consists of over 1,500 moderate income units throughout 13 different buildings and over 1.5 million square feet in the Bronx. AHC is recognized as a leader in affordable housing and is committed to Cooperative Principles and enabling our residents to thrive. 

We look forward to continuing this tradition of innovation with our partners in NYSERDA by committing to carbon neutrality in our tallest buildings, Tower I and Tower II, at 3965 & 3975 Sedgwick Avenue as a part of the Empire Building Challenge. The towers consist of 316 affordable units, 20 stories, and a combined 425,000 square-feet. In the proposed buildings, we plan on reducing our overall energy use through deep and holistic carbon reduction measures. Towers I and II will use a baseline site EUI of 111.5 to target a 64% reduction to 40.0 EUI in 2035. 

We also commit to transparency and sharing of project information for knowledge transfer and education purposes. We are pleased to work with NYSERDA and our engineering and geothermal partners, EN-POWER GROUP (enpg.com) and Egg Geo (egggeo.com), on this exciting endeavor.

BXP has taken a leading role in advancing the transition to a low carbon economy. The company became a proud signatory of the We Are Still In pledge after the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and aligned emissions reduction targets with the climate science. In 2020, the company was the first North American office company to set a science-based target ambition in line with a 1.5°C trajectory and has made a commitment to achieve carbon-neutral operations for emissions scopes 1 and 2 by 2025, including over 9 million square feet in New York.

In partnership with NYSERDA, BXP’s involvement in the Empire Building Challenge will advance the development and implementation of a decarbonization roadmap for 601 Lexington Avenue (formerly Citigroup Center), a 1.8 million square foot, 59-story office tower constructed in the late 1970s.  
The project aims to achieve

• net zero carbon operations by 2025
• a site energy use intensity of 50 kBTU/SF by 2035 (over 60% reduction from 2010 baseline)
• full electrification of the heating systems by 2035

Climate action is collective action. Knowledge gained from this effort will be shared and used to replicate similar solutions in other commercial buildings, including 6 million square feet of area within the BXP portfolio. BXP intends to continue working closely with the broader real estate community and stakeholders to advance the transition to a low carbon economy.  

Brookfield plans to achieve carbon neutrality for 660 5th Avenue for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2035 as well as for all remaining properties within the New York City portfolio no later than 2050. In addition to carbon neutrality, 660 5th Avenue will target achieving a 38% reduction in site energy use intensity to 75 kBtu/SF or below by 2035.

Equity Residential is one of the nation’s largest publicly traded owners and operators of high-quality rental apartment properties. Equity Residential owns and manages 88M square feet of over 300 multifamily assets, totaling more than 80,000 units in 10 markets nationwide.

Equity Residential’s corporate purpose is “creating communities where people thrive” and it has more than a decade of global and national leadership in the sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) space. Equity Residential has committed to a 30% per square foot reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, portfolio-wide, by 2030 from a 2018 baseline year. This goal is aligned with the Science-Based Target Initiative’s (SBTi) framework intended to maintain global warming well below 2ºC. 

As one of the largest public owners of market rate multifamily real estate in New York, Equity Residential has a deep understanding of the challenges of managing, maintaining, and improving existing multifamily buildings. Moreover, it recognizes its unique opportunity to serve as a model for others throughout the industry in demonstrating viable, replicable pathways of existing building decarbonization. 

With that in mind, in partnership with NYSERDA, Equity Residential submitted 2 multifamily buildings for application into the Empire Building Challenge.  These highly viable candidates were selected based on energy performance, age, central system make-up and electrification goals:  777 6th Avenue and 180 Montague, both high rise residential buildings located in Manhattan and Brooklyn respectively. At each building, Equity Residential will target to reduce the sites’ energy use intensity (EUI) by approximately 50% to support our goal of decarbonizing our New York State portfolio. 

LeFrak is committed to decarbonizing LeFrak City Plaza, a 20-story office building located in Corona, Queens that currently serves as the headquarters to NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection. The building, erected in 1970, will target to reduce its energy use intensity to 65 kBtu/SF by 2035 which represents a greater than 50% reduction from a 2010 baseline of 131.7 kBtu/SF.