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Equastone-Owned Building Awarded ENERGY STAR
New Orleans, LA - Equastone, a private real estate investment firm, announced today that the firm's New Orleans-based office building, Pan-Am, has earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) prestigious Energy Star Rating, the national symbol for protecting the environment through superior energy performance. Located at 601 Poydras St. New Orleans, Pan-Am is now joined by over 10% of the Equastone portfolio recognized by the Energy Star.
By earning the Energy Star, Pan-Am is recognized for being in the top 25% for energy efficiency for office buildings across the nation, while still providing quality service and comfort to occupants. By making cost-effective improvements to the building, Equastone lowered their energy use and reduced CO2 /greenhouse gas emissions 42% below the national average for similar office buildings.
Cory Cunningham, Director of Operations, reported, "The Energy Star rating achieved at Pan-Am demonstrates our commitment to making a difference in our environment. We believe that through energy efficient and value oriented approaches we can simultaneously add value to our tenants, our investors and the environment."
Acquired in December 2006, Pan-Am is a 671,396 square foot, 27 story, Class A office complex with a nine-story parking garage. The property is situated next to Poydras at St. Charles. Pan-Am is currently 89.1 percent occupied and includes major tenants such as Christovich & Kearney, L.L.P., SESI, LLC, Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith, Inc, Pan-American Life Insurance Co. and Lugenbuhl Wheaton Peck Rankin & Hubbard. Pan-Am is a BOMA Toby Award winner.
Clint Harrington, executive vice president of Equastone, said, "We invest in underperforming properties where we can add value and attract high quality tenants while keeping Pan-Am is testimony for current and future tenants that we are committed to owning and operating the best-in-class buildings."
Equastone made significant operational improvements to Pan-Am to earn the Energy Star, including: initiating time schedules to start and stop hot water chillers, circulating pumps and sand filters to operate only during normal operating hours, installing light switches to secure lighting in vacant and tenant locations, raising HVAC set points to run chillers more efficiently during operations hours, raising set points of cooling tower fans and disabling heat in the duct heaters in the HVAC system in the summertime.
Energy Star is a government-backed program that helps businesses and consumers protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. In 2006 alone, Americans, with the help of Energy Star, saved $14 billion and prevented greenhouse gas emissions equal to those from 25 million vehicles. Equastone is Energy Star partner and actively utilizes the Energy Star program throughout the majority of a 58 building portfolio.
About Equastone
Equastone specializes in the acquisition and asset management of opportunistic and value-added real estate. Equastone's affiliated funds currently own 58 office and flex buildings encompassing over 9 million rentable square feet in California, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, Oregon and Texas. Equastone manages investment capital on behalf of Equastone Real Estate Funds, which are private equity funds for high net-worth and institutional investors. For more information about Equastone visit www.equastone.com.
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