HR&A is the implementation contractor for NYSERDA's Focus on Commercial Real Estate initiative (Focus CRE), a marketing, outreach, and technical assistance program that guides commercial property owners and managers through diagnostic tasks and financial planning to identify improvements that maximize energy savings and return on investment. Over the past two years, HR&A has built a variety of Focus CRE tools for use by the commercial real estate industry. These include a New York State interface for the EPA's Portfolio Manager benchmarking tool, a Lease Analysis Tool that allows an owner to assess the impact of actual lease terms (split incentive) in its buildings on a recommended scope of work, and an Energy Scan, i.e. an expedited audit template. HR&A is currently serving as the Account Manager for 14 commercial office portfolios, representing 203 buildings and 99 million square feet. To date, Focus CRE has been responsible for 54 NYSERDA program applications, representing $3.7 million in incentive dollars.

SL Green Realty Corporation is one of HR&A's accounts. Working closely with HR&A, SL Green has undertaken a portfolio-wide efficiency project, beginning with benchmarking its entire commercial portfolio of 24 million square feet. The benchmarking results enabled SL Green to compare its buildings' energy performance to that of others in New York, and identify the buildings with the greatest potential for energy performance improvement. Six properties were selected as priorities, with significant potential for energy savings or for being in close range to achieving an Energy $tar rating. Comprehensive energy audits were performed on these buildings, and recommended energy conservation measures were further evaluated using HR&A's Lease Analysis Tool, which determined the extent to which SL Green would capture operating savings and be able to pass through capital costs. Finally, HR&A assisted SL Green in obtaining NYSERDA incentives to ameliorate the cost of implementing the selected measures. SL Green has received more than $350,000 in NYSERDA incentives as well as a host of services from HR&A, including capital planning and tenant outreach assistance.

One of the buildings, 100 Park Avenue, had significant capital needs and a baseline Portfolio Manager score of 67, only 8 points from an Energy $tar rating. The Focus CRE Action Plan identified three priority measures, with paybacks of less than two years, for early implementation. SL Green decided to use these findings as an opportunity to reposition the building, and invested in a new chiller, windows and other energy saving measures, as well as lobby and common area upgrades. Post-renovation, the building has moved from Class B to Class A, is certified LEED Silver, and has an Energy $tar score of 75. Post-installation and before the economic downturn, 100 Park was achieving higher rents than its competitors; it continues to benefit from lower vacancy and a higher volume of tenant interest than comparable properties. A recently completed energy study concluded that overall energy consumption in the building was reduced by almost 30% in the last three years despite an increase in occupancy in the last year.