New Appraisal Institute form aids in analysis of green commercial building features

The Appraisal Institute has released a form intended to help analyze values of commercial buildings' energy efficient features.

The Institute’s Commercial Green and Energy Efficient Addendum offers a communication tool that lenders can use as part of the scope of work. The addendum also assists investors in communicating the construction features of the property that impact income.

Appraisers, builders, energy modelers, green certifiers, architects and investors can use the addendum if a property has green features even if it is not certified. Water and energy efficient features are keys to a higher net income, and appraisers should take care to identify these features, the institute says.

"The market has many different ideas of what makes a property green, and this addendum will assist in understanding actual green features," said Institute president M. Lance Coyle, MAI, SRA. "After the construction of a building, the construction features are often forgotten, and the blueprints and specifications are often misplaced or overlooked." The form is a concise document that records green features for easy reference.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.