N.Y.C. Housing Agency Pursues Energy-Efficient Rehabs
Cover Story — January 2007
NEW YORK CONSTRUCTION, By Diane Greer
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Affordable housing isn’t really affordable if tenants and landlords can’t pay their energy bills.
That simple notion is the driving force behind the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s High Performance Housing Initiative, a program that is incorporating energy-efficiency upgrades into the gut rehabilitation of 5,000 affordable housing units around the city.
With $7.5 million provided by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the program not only seeks to recast old buildings as energy-efficient housing but also aims to sway the market by driving down the cost of adding energy-saving measures and convincing banks to factor future energy savings into underwriting guidelines.
“We are very excited by the program,” said Thelma Arceo, a senior manager at Community Environmental Center, a New York-based, nonprofit energy conservation consultant that helped to develop the initiative. “It is seldom that you see a citywide approach in this area.”
Upon its completion later this year, the program is expected to save $6 million annually for building owners and tenants – reducing owner operating expenses by about $1,000 per unit each year and tenant utility bills by as much as $200 per year.
The effort began in 2001 when the city housing agency decided to incorporate energy-efficient measures into a revision of its specifications for gut rehabilitation projects. It sought advice from the state energy authority, which in turn lined up CEC to revise the specifications.
Applying detailed cost-benefit analyses, CEC developed specifications with new techniques that would likely require training for contractors, such as applying spray-on cellulose insulation, said Mike Colgrove, program manager for the authority’s Assisted Multifamily Housing Program. Other new measures include adding high-efficiency gas-fired boilers; compact fluorescent lighting; low-E argon windows; and energy-efficient appliances, pumps, and motors.
Overall, CEC applied its expertise in weatherization, energy assessment, and auditing programs to identify 16 sections of the contractor specifications that were ripe for upgrades, Arceo said.
In 2003, the team embarked on a year-long pilot program to apply the revised specifications to 101 units in 11 buildings undergoing gut rehabilitation in the Bronx. The pilot’s success led to a plan to expand the new specifications to all four of the city housing agency’s major gut rehabilitation programs [see box at end].
The pilot led to the launch later that year of the High Performance Housing Initiative, with the authority pledging $7.5 million over three years, including funds for CEC to assist housing agency architects and production staff in the review of project drawings and construction plans to ensure conformance with the new specifications. The projects entail gut rehabilitations down to the building shell.
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Going for the Gut The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development has four gut rehabilitation programs that are using funds from its High Performance Housing Initiative: • the Neighborhood Redevelopment Program and Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program, both of which involve buildings sold to an intermediary before construction begins (and the eventual sale of the co-op units to individual owners) • the Tenant Interim Lease program, which rehabilitates buildings under city ownership, then sells them as low-income co-ops • and the Participant Loan Program, which provides low-interest loans to private building owners for rehabilitation of multiple dwellings in buildings with more than 20 units. |
Colgrove said the state grant was critical because it effectively lets the housing agency build out the same number of units it had already programmed into its budget while still paying for the energy upgrades.
“HPD has developed a strong slant towards energy-efficient building, but it can’t go from developing 7,500 units to 6,000 units a year [to pay for the energy upgrades],” Colgrove said.
The grant divvied $7.175 million for construction efforts between $3.5 million for the full cost of adding the enhanced energy measures for 2,000 units in the first year of projects; $2.1 million for the second year covering 80 percent of the upgrade costs for 1,500 units; and $1.575 million in the final year, which runs through this spring, covering 60 percent of upgrade costs for up to 1,500 units. The units will be in buildings across the city.
Marya Kuklick, director of special projects in the housing department’s Division of Special Needs Housing, said the reason the fund is paying a smaller share of upgrade costs in the out years is the expectation that other factors can compensate, such as expanded bank financing and lower costs for energy-efficient systems.
For instance, the state and city agencies hope to convince banks to adjust underwriting guidelines to account for projected energy savings, allowing projects to shoulder higher debt burdens, Colgrove said. The authority is meeting with banks to discuss the initiative and collecting data on energy savings to justify increased underwriting levels.
In addition, as more contractors – from plumbers to carpenters – gain experience in the techniques, bidding and materials costs may drop as well, Arceo said. She said currently there are only six contractors locally that are well versed in the new techniques.
“This is part of what NYSERDA wants – market transformation – to increase the number of contractors doing energy conservation work,” Arceo said.
Market transformation could also impact manufacturing, Colgrove said.
“When demand increases, costs drop as manufacturers change over production lines, dedicating more production to energy-efficient products,” he added.
Arceo said she is seeing costs drop.
“Our current assessment is looking at an $800 per-unit incremental cost,” she said, a figure that is half of the original estimated per-unit costs.
CEC is also training housing agency architects and building inspectors on the new rules; working with architects to evaluate plan compliance; reviewing construction documents and bids; and monitoring construction. It has already flagged problems such as incorrectly installed windows and inadequate insulation, said Keith Bernard, a construction management analyst for CEC.
Such project monitoring pays off, Arceo added.
“We do not want them to just say it is in the specifications – we want to see the right measures are being built,” she added.
Arceo said she hopes that the housing agency will expand the green options as it moves forward.
“If our numbers are good for the first year, then we hope their approach is to move forward with the green specifications,” she added.
| Greening Affordable Housing by Diane Greer A demonstration project at 1347 Bristow St. in the Bronx is aiming to be the first New York City Department of Housing and Preservation gut rehabilitation project to earn silver-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification – providing a template showing how affordable housing can meet LEED standards at a reasonable cost.The $3.7 million, 11-month project, which stripped the interiors to the shell, started in January 2006, said Steven Faicco, deputy director of the design and review bureau in the housing department’s Division of Architecture, Construction & Engineering. The 25,000-sq.-ft. building with 25 units and ground floor retail space is part of the agency’s Tenant Interim Lease program, which rehabilitates buildings under city ownership and then sells units to tenants as low-income co-ops.The housing agency’s architects and engineers worked closely with the Community Environmental Center, a New York-based, nonprofit energy-efficiency consultant, to evaluate the environmental benefits and economic costs of the proposed measures, including testing of features for quality and durability. For example, the team found that sample installations of bamboo flooring were able to withstand daily wear and tear better than standard flooring options the agency uses, said Alex MacFarlane, CEC’s director of green building technical services.Among the sustainable measures incorporated into the final design are a condensing gas-fired boiler with flat panel hydronic radiators equipped with thermostats; fiberglass-framed windows with low thermal transmittance values; and energy-efficient appliances and lighting.Meanwhile, the building envelope is also energy efficient, utilizing a damp proofing membrane; passive ventilation through small airlets created by round ducts with dampers and washable filters; and blown-in rockwool insulation, a recycled product that is both fire- and insect-resistant. In addition, the team installed a green roof over half of the structure. On the inside, the units will also have water conservation features such as dual-flush toilets, along with low-flow sinks and showerheads. The New York State Environmental Research and Development Authority is funding the upfront tab of adding the green measures for the project. The incremental costs for adding the sustainable measures are estimated at $5.50 per sq. ft., representing a 5 premium, MacFarlane said. But the rehabilitated building will facilitate reduction of reduce energy and water consumption by 30 percent over standard units in the housing agency. The annual energy savings created over the lifetime of the enhancements are expected to offset the incremental costs of adding all of the green and energy upgrade measures, said Mike Colgrove, assisted multifamily housing program manager for the state energy authority. Other efforts, such as procuring green products locally, are helping the project win LEED certification. For example, the team obtained the kitchen cabinets from Brooklyn Woods, a Brooklyn-based manufacturer that built the units from wheatboard, bamboo laminates, solid bamboo for the doors, and nontoxic glues, MacFarlane said. In addition to consulting on LEED measures, CEC will periodically check electricity and fuel consumption and may add a monitoring verification plan to demonstrate the project’s benefits as a model for future projects. “Follow-up is important,” MacFarlane said. “You have to make the economic case, proving the building saves energy and is more user-friendly.” Key Players: Owner-Designer-Engineer: New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development LEED Consultant: Community Environmental Center, New York Construction Manager: J.E. Activities, New York |
