You know the light bulb that clicks on above a cartoon character’s head?
That “ah ha” moment is an epiphany, a quantum leap of understanding. Suddenly there’s absolute realization that you need to quit your Wall Street job to become a chef or move to Montana to raise a crop of dental floss.
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There aren’t many epiphanies that occur in commercial real estate – there aren’t many epiphanies that occur ever – but, as it happens, I happened to have one.
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A dozen years ago, I was appraising a newly built building in Battery Park City for the construction loan takeout. But not just any building. It was the very first green residential multifamily building in the United States.
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It was groundbreaking with green features that barely existed elsewhere. When it was completed in 2003, the industry still considered green building and sustainability to be economically unfeasible, or at least a major economic challenge. Back then, the U.S. Green Building Council was still explaining what a green building even was.
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Thus when the Albanese Development Corp announced they were building The Solaire, the response was a resounding “let’s wait and see” or perhaps even, “better them than me.”
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But for me, being in the recently leased-up The Solaire was a revelation. I could breathe noticeably better. I had a marked sense of well being. I was to learn that the indoor air was always filtered and monitored, right down to whether to add humidity or dehumidify. A building employee told me about a little boy with asthma who lived there who went on a school break to Disney World with his mother and asked if they could come back early because he could breathe better at home.
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At that moment, in that building, I saw the future of real estate and it was going to be green. Certainly not immediately. But eventually. As an appraiser, it set my course for becoming the first (and still only) LEED BC+D commercial real estate appraiser in New York City.
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Now, of course, all of us understand, encourage, embrace and support green buildings. But I keep going back to that little boy who knew, way back when, that while Disney might be the happiest place on earth, a green home was the healthiest.
By Steven J. Schleider, MAI, LEED-AP BD + C
President, Metropolitan Valuation Services
