Gemdale USA Keeps a San Francisco Icon Running at Maximum Efficiency With Minimum Effort
Gridium’s combined energy expertise and targeted energy analytics ensure the team at 350 Bush never miss a savings opportunity
350 Bush Street is one-of-a-kind in San Francisco’s financial district. Finished in 2018, the 390,000 sf building offers class A office space to tenants like Twitch Interactive and Atlassian, multibillion-dollar makers of team collaboration software. The property blends the architecture of the city’s old Mining Exchange Building—a Beaux-Arts stone masterpiece built in 1923—with a 19-story LEED Gold-certified glass-facade tower. Owned by real estate investment and development firm Gemdale USA and managed by a 3rd party property management company, 350 Bush exemplifies San Francisco’s past and future.
“Gridium helps our building teams minimize energy costs and continue to keep our assets fine-tuned, so we’re best-positioned to capture the highest possible savings and improve asset value.”
Darren Cohen, Executive Director of Asset Management, Gemdale USA
Photo Credit: Scott Hargis Photo
Challenge
Budgeting
Even though 350 Bush is a relatively new, well-tuned building kept up by an extremely vigilant chief engineer, drift is inevitable. Yet it can often be hard to detect until it’s already driven up usage and costs, jeopardizing efficiency and tenant bills. To keep spend in check, Senior Real Estate Manager Clara Wong needs to see if utility usage is fluctuating week to week and month to month—but lacks the time to dig through analytics or search PG&E’s website for old bills to download and compare. Without easy access to the building’s utility usage, Wong is stuck waiting for utility bills to assess 350 Bush’s performance.
ENERGY STAR
350 Bush’s Chief Engineer Alice Smith knows how efficiently her building runs: “I love my building,” said Smith. “So I keep things as efficient as I can. After 30 years of doing this, I know what needs to be done.” To better communicate their commitment to and track record on operational efficiency to tenants and potential buyers, the property manager is working to get 350 Bush ENERGY STAR certified. Certification has almost become table stakes for class A office buildings in major cities across the U.S.. But it’s also a mandatory stepping stone to ENERGY STAR’s NextGen certification, a new certification that recognizes commercial real estate leaders in energy efficiency and carbon emissions.
Applying for ENERGY STAR certification can quickly become time-consuming without all of the necessary data centralized. Especially given it’s her first time going through this specific application process, Wong was concerned that gathering and inputting all the data would require time she didn’t have. Plus, applications are limited to once per year, so missing the deadline could set 350 Bush’s certification back by a full year.
Gridium’s weekly variance summary emails allow the team to quickly ensure the building is performing as expected.
Approach
Budgeting
Gridium combines an easy-to-use energy analytics platform with over a decade of building expertise to help leading property management firms better manage energy usage and spend. While robust analytics are nice to have, busy property managers and chief engineers don’t always have time to use them. So a key benefit for the 350 Bush team is Gridium’s weekly variance summary emails. These emails allow Wong and Smith to quickly ensure the building is performing as expected without having to go looking for information.
ENERGY STAR
When the time comes to apply for ENERGY STAR certification, Gridium’s energy analysts will act as an extension of the 350 Bush team. Using energy analytics from the Gridium platform, the Gridium team will submit 350 Bush’s ENERGY STAR benchmarking application quickly and correctly, freeing up Wong and her team to maintain their focus on keeping tenants happy and maintaining smooth building operations.
Photo Credit: Scott Hargis Photo
Results
Since onboarding, Gridium has proven its status as a go-to partner for Gemdale and its property management partner on anything energy-related at 350 Bush. When Wong got an unexpected notice from the City of San Francisco requiring them to perform an energy audit of 350 Bush, rather than calling the City for clarification, she reached out to the Gridium team. Her account manager, an energy expert with nearly two decades of experience in the field, quickly dug in and learned that, as a new building, 350 Bush was exempt.
“The Gridium team is very responsive and knowledgeable in the field. Plus, being able to see our bill information and building energy costs is critical to keeping energy spend under control.”
Clara Wong, Senior Real Estate Manager
The Gridium platform also quickly unearthed a BMS error that had flown under the radar. Getting that information to Smith, the property’s chief engineer, quickly helped her fix the problem before it became costly. “Gridium shows me whether my building is doing what it’s supposed to do,” says Smith. “Now I’m looking at everything, making sure things are working as expected.”
For any high value asset to thrive in today’s increasingly competitive real estate market, owners and operators understand that highly efficient operations are critical. “As landlords, it is our responsibility to operate our buildings with optimal efficiency,” says Darren Cohen, Executive Director of Asset Management, Gemdale USA. Any efficiency gained impacts tenants’ financial bottom line, and ultimately enhances their quality of life while residing in the building. “With Gridium as a partner, we’re better equipped to uncover as much efficiency as possible, and ensure that our tenants benefit.”