News
Urban Living Lab
December 8, 2010
| Sustainability roulette. That’s the game many green developers play because no one knows with complete certainty what the payoff will be. | |
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| But Realty Appreciation plans to change that with its $128M Urban Living Laboratory in partnership with Texas A&M. We chatted with company PM Kevin Rogers, who tells us the goal of the project is to build a comprehensive knowledge base for real estate developers, investors, bankers, appraisers, city planners, green product manufacturers, and the general public. The public-private partnership will build a 1.2M SF mixed-use campus where scientists can research emerging green technologies related to building materials, energy, water, indoor environmental quality, transportation, and human behavior in a green, urban environment. | |
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| The 73-acre Urban Living Laboratory will be located on Coit Road between Frankfurt and Campbell in North Dallas (about 15 miles north of downtown). Kevin tells us the development includes a unique technology platform for monitoring, controlling, and analyzing every element, component, process, and system. "The research will be non-intrusive to the tenants, but the resulting data will be available to all tenants. We want to see how people use that data to adopt a greener lifestyle,” Kevin says. Realty Appreciation has 17 major companies participating as partners including Johnson Controls, GE, LG Electronics, Philips, Eaton, USG, Kone, American Standard, Owens Corning, and TXU Energy. Construction is scheduled to begin Q4 '11 with a three- to five-year build-out. | |
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| The research conducted within the Urban Living Laboratory (rendering above) will provide data needed to make decisions on how we build urban environments in the future. Often, getting financing for green projects is impossible because bankers (and investors) want to see data related to green buildings, and no such research exists on the ROI for green projects, Kevin tells us. This project will provide real data verified by third-party researchers. You can hear more about the ULL and Realty Appreciation at Bisnow's Dallas Sustainability Summit on Dec. 15 at the Westin Galleria. Sign up today! |
