$20 Million Green Offices Pull Heat From the Earth and Have a Parking Structure
By Richard Metcalf
Journal Staff Writer
The accounting firm of Phillippi, Wright & Co. is planning to be the first tenant in a $20 million, four-story "Class A" office building under construction off Paseo del Norte, east of I-25.
Paseo Nuevo Office Complex, which will have 96,360 square feet of office space for lease, is being built on speculation by a partnership of local investors headed by Skip Skarsgard.
The Phillippi firm has an inside track to the new building, since it currently leases about 6,000 square feet in another Skarsgard property, Altura Office Complex.
In a way, the 107,465-square-foot Altura is a prototype of what is planned for the Paseo Nuevo building. Located on the 4000 block of Indian School NE, Altura is a classy three- and four-story complex with a parking structure and convenient interstate access.
"We thought those elements would work at Holly and San Pedro," Skarsgard said about the new building's site. He noted that Altura has not had "a square foot of vacancy since we finished it in 1999."
The $20 million building will sit on a hill, making high visibility from I-25 and views among the building's assets, Skarsgard said.
In addition to being four-stories high, Paseo Nuevo will have a fifth lower level, partially below grade, for storage and mechanical systems. The adjacent two-level parking structure, also partially below grade, will have about 375 spaces.
"Parking structures are expensive but, with the slope of the lot, it wasn't as hard as it might have been," said Josh Skarsgard, Skip's son and the project manager.
The parking structure, which reduces surface parking by half, is an example of green building elements incorporated into the project's design.
"We're going to be building a very energy-conscious building not only because we believe in it, it's smart in that you save a lot of money," Josh Skarsgard said.
The building's heating and cooling tap into the earth's stable temperature of about 60 degrees with a ground source heat pump system, said David Dekker of Studio Southwest Architects.
The system, which involves 144 heat pump wells drilled 200 feet down, circulates water so that its temperature balances to ground temperature. An electric heating and cooling system makes up the difference, whether it is to heat or cool.
The system was installed at Altura, where Skip Skarsgard estimated that it reduces the electric bill by about 15 percent a year. In addition, the ground source heat pump system has proved to be low maintenance, he said.
The building uses a lot of glass for natural lighting, but Dekker noted, "It's all shaded and protected from sun angles, especially in the summer months."
The building is designed to meet standards for certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, Dekker said, but the developers are not going to seek it.
"LEED certification is too expensive," said Josh Skarsgard, saying it would add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of the Nuevo Paseo project.
The additional cost involves independent verification, typically by a consultant, that a project meets requirements of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program.
The initial challenge in developing the four-acre site and a couple of adjacent lots was that it was once a landfill.
"In reality, this land did not become economically feasible to clean up until the land prices started to escalate with the development of Paseo del Norte and the area surrounding it," Skip Skarsgard said.
The first step was the removal of 80,000 cubic yards of trash, which cost about $2 million, Skarsgard said. Then the site had to be stabilized using what are called "auger-cast piles," which are basically concrete-filled well shafts.
The project needed 182 piles, ranging from 24 to 36 inches in diameter, drilled 45 to 60 feet deep, according to Studio Southwest Architects.
Despite the cost of the additional site work, office space in the building is being marketed at $22.50 a square foot by Keith Bandoni, Martha Carpenter and Karen Hudson of Maestas & Ward Commercial Real Estate.
"We're going to be 50 cents a square foot below the prevailing rate for new office properties in the area," Hudson said, referring to the asking rate of $23 a square foot for new offices in the nearby Journal Center.
Paseo Nuevo is the first building marketed as Class A office space on Paseo del Norte, east of I-25. Class A means the building has high-quality finishes, exceptional location and market presence.
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