Untapped Opportunities in Energy-Efficient Development

Griewe: “Intelligently designed buildings match the environment they’re in; you can use local plants, especially in California.”

LADERA RANCH, CA—From interior LED lighting to solar systems and xeriscaping, the self-storage industry is slowly catching on to the benefits of energy-efficient technology for the environment as well as the bottom line, SmartStop Asset Management LLC ‘s Brian Griewe tells GlobeSt.com. The firm recently promoted the industry veteran to VP of development , responsible for expanding the company’s acquisitions and commitment to creating environmentally friendly, energy-efficient buildings. We spoke with Griewe exclusively about his new role as well as the challenges and opportunities in creating these green buildings. GlobeSt.com: What are your goals in our new role with SmartStop? Griewe: There’s great opportunity in our industry to make more energy-efficient buildings and to produce very-low-energy buildings to reduce costs. A lot of people don’t think of intelligent design; they only see initial costs. I hope to continue to create environmentally friendly but eye-appealing buildings. There’s a possibility to continue to use building technology to advance intelligent design in buildings, which is very underplayed in this industry right now? GlobeSt.com: What are the challenges and opportunities in creating environmentally friendly, energy-efficient buildings? Griewe: One of the challenges is price. As you build new technology into buildings, the price point of the overall cost vs. the expectations of what you’re going to bring the development costs in as creates a fine balance to provide and keep the price expectation where it should be. Doing this while making sure we are within company guidelines of what we want our buildings to look and feel like when they’re done is a challenge. Also, when working with small municipalities, their building departments are often not up to date with the new technology, so explaining how those items work and how they relate to and are better than the older technology is another challenge—getting the design moving forward when it’s something they don’t fully understand. When you start designing a new building, it’s important to look at what rebates might be available to help reduce overall design costs. Many cities are giving rebates for energy-efficient development, so you need to look at where you can take advantage of those rebates. There are a lot of opportunities, such as LED lighting technology on the exterior and interior of a building—not just the exterior. This reduces overall costs because you don’t have disposable lightbulb waste and costs. Widely overlooked is the design of the landscape, so try to do xeriscape when you can, which also reduces the cost of hauling away debris from landscape maintenance. Intelligently designed buildings match the environment they’re in; you can use local plants, especially in California. We finished a deal recently in the desert in Phoenix that featured all water-efficient, drought-tolerant plants to minimize costs long term. Another untapped opportunity is the solar market, taking a look to rebuild sites to have solar on the roof—even if it’s a year or two down the road. As the solar market changes and new emerging markets come through, if you don’t have the infrastructure, you can’t retrofit. If you build for it in the beginning, you’ll be able to rely on solar systems to offset electrical costs—it’s a great way of doing that. In Canada, the solar market is very new, but three of our sites in Canada have 750,000-kilowatt solar systems that operate at a very high efficiency rate; these are high-revenue-growth stores. So, solar provides a great revenue source for our properties. GlobeSt.com: How open is the industry to creating these types of properties? Griewe: I think we’re starting to see it a little more. Everybody’s a little resistant at first, especially with the solar piece, and a lot of people are taking a wait-and-see attitude on this. Our company is very good about seeing the future and not being the ones to get on the bandwagon, but to be the leaders in the industry. GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about SmartStop? Griewe: It’s been a great investment for our shareholders in the past, and we’re continuing to look for new opportunities in all markets around the world to increase our company’s growth and shareholder value. We have a new corporate office that we’re building in Ladera Ranch that will be LEED Gold , and it also has the Ladera Sports Center with basketball and volleyball courts, it’s fully solar and has EV charging stations. It’s a state-of-the-art facility we’re bringing to Ladera. It looks like it will be open later this month or the next. We’re looking forward to moving into our new home and having the opportunity for the community come out and play some ball. With developers leveraging development and redevelopment opportunities across all property types, how can you capitalize on this activity? Join us  at RealShare Orange County on August 16^th for impactful information from the leaders in Orange County CRE. Learn more .