Transcend Equity Tackles MOB Green Conversion

DALLAS-In its typical “open-heart surgery,” Transcend Equity Development Corp. will put its energy-efficiency model to work on its first biomedical building. The 78,000-sf office building in the city’s research and hospital corridor will undergo $1.1 million of energy-saving measures at no upfront cost to the owner.

J. Stephen Gossett Jr., co-founder and vice president of the Dallas-based firm, tells GlobeSt.com that the makeover plan for the seven-story building at 2110 Research Row will result in the reduction of 1,500 metric tons of greenhouse gases or the equivalent of removing about 285 vehicles from the road. He estimates the savings will surpass 50% of existing energy costs. The “greening up” of the building, owned by Moser Realty Group of Dallas, pencils out to be so promising that Transcend Equity has jumped into talks with a national REIT to assess its medical-related commercial properties for similar gains, Gossett says.

Gossett

Older medical-related real estate typically uses “two to three times” more energy than comparably sized traditional office buildings, says Gossett, who estimates the Research Row building’s energy costs are running about $6 per sf to $6.50 per sf annually. The goal is to “future proof it against higher costs of energy,” he says, “by using off-the-shelf technology and putting pieces of what you’d put in a brand-new building into an existing building to make it work properly.”

With work about to start in the coming weeks, Gossett says the 50-year-old building will be done in December. Crews will work nights to open ceilings in 137 locations, replace underpinnings and close them back up before tenants arrive in the morning. Half of the 90%-leased building is occupied by a University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Veripath Laboratories.

To put the job into perspective for the industry, Gossett explains that fume hoods, which run 24/7 in older buildings, will be outfitted with energy-efficient technology to regulate air replacement in offices and lab space. He says the existing mechanical system completely replaces air four times every hour while the new one will run on demand when fume hoods are in use “to cut energy use substantially.” In addition, the overhaul of the inner workings will include installation of a variable air volume system for individual temperature controls in offices and lab spaces.