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When developer Carter USA opened the doors to Phase 1 of its 7.3-acre Piedmont West Medical Office Park in January 2009, it was nearly 50% leased. Fast-forward four years and the 264,000-square-foot, nine-story healthcare facility is 92% leased and stacking up awards and recognitions for its operational efficiencies.

Developed in conjunction with Piedmont Healthcare Inc., which occupies 91,000 square feet of the $90-million building, Piedmont West won the Building Owners and Managers Association's 2012 International TOBY award in the Medical Office Building category. The award is the highest level of recognition from BOMA. “Some medical office buildings are just exam rooms and basic office space,” says Piedmont West chief engineer John Day of Cassidy Turley, the building's property manager. “In this building we have surgical centers, CT and PET scan machines, nuclear medicine machines, extra HVAC equipment. And all of this consumes much more energy. Energy conservation becomes a key part of the building-operations strategy in sophisticated medical office buildings like Piedmont West.” Indeed, engineering savings is a must in this energy-intensive building, which was constructed with green principles.