Plans Complete for Armuchee Connector

According to Kevin Poe, Floyd County Manager, plans for Armuchee Connector are now complete. The project will be “put out to bid the beginning of next month” and the county plans for construction to “start in September and be completed by the summer or fall of 2011,” according to Poe. This SPLOST-funded road will connect the Rome Boulevard to Martha Berry Highway (Hwy 27) just north of the Mount Berry Square Mall and bring countless new traffic, visitors, shoppers, and patrons. Look for photos as soon as construction begins.

LEED Trends in the News

Anywhere you look in architectural and building trends will bring you across the developments in LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. This powerful certification allows the measurement of how well a building or community performs across all the metrics that matter most: energy saving, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. There have been some notable articles by architects, builders and lovers of green alike. Most recently, the USGBC highlighted the article “Smart Building Owners Can Find the ‘Green’ and Stop Singing the Blues” by Andrew T. Nichols. An excerpt follows, or click GREEN to access the full text:

As consumers stop shopping, retail tenants have less money for rent and les need for space. When businesses contract, there is less demand for office, industrial and other facilities. And as employment and wages trend downward, tenants strain to pay the apartment rent (especially the high end). Rising tenant defaults and vacancies and declining rents challenge property owners struggling to pay debt service or faced with maturing mortgages.

Add to those challenges the prospect of rising energy costs. Fluctuations in oil and gas prices over the past year have been stupendous, with crude oil prices falling from $145.31 to $52.38 per barrel between July 2008 and this past March. As with land, oil is a depleting asset. Once China, India, Brazil, the U.S., and other nations step up manufacturing, and automobile ownership increases in emerging nations, prices for fuel will rise as well. Even with low oil prices today, electricity costs are still going up. In the U.S., electric demand outpaces supply, and most utility providers are seeking rate increases. For property owners and tenants, controlling escalading energy costs can be a key to surviving a downturn and prospering on the upside….

And

Irrespective of project size, it is almost axiomatic that the value of a building after “greening” will go up. Conversely, avoiding green initiatives will almost certainly portend a decline in value over time. First and foremost, energy costs are destined to rise. Failing to adopt energy saving programs will mean lower net operating income and depressed values for older, less efficient buildings. Second, not being green put owners at a competitive disadvantage.

You can check out more information by going to the LEED CERTIFICATION page here on Rome Boulevard, where there are links to many great resources. If you find a great article about going green or LEED development, feel free to share by commenting below.