As we posted in June, President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative updated tax incentives aimed to encourage retrofitting buildings to reduce energy bills. Although considered the “low-hanging fruit” of carbon reduction, financing of commercial building retrofits for energy efficiency has largely remained in the realm of public subsidies. Opening the floodgates of private financing could expand [...]
Archive for the ‘Real Estate’ Category
4 Oct
Marcellus Minerals: Is Marcellus Shale Gas a “Mineral” for the Purposes of Pennsylvania’s Dunham Rule?
Two recent law firm memos (from Fulbright & Jaworski and Pepper Hamilton) tackled the subject when they covered a September 7th decision from the Pennsylvania Superior Court in Butler v. Powers. The “Dunham Rule” refers to an assumption in Pennsylvania law, wherein a reservation or exception for “minerals” in a deed or lease that does [...]
23 Aug
“Green Value” and Mortgage Collateral
In a recent article, law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf addresses head-on how the only-recently-ubiquitous “green” metrics, terminology, and technology in real estate and development have affected building valuation, and, specifically, how one can hedge the risks when green value is lost. The Dewey & LeBoeuf piece discusses two general ways that “green” that can add [...]
15 Apr
GM’s Toxic Secret: RACER Trust’s Contaminated Properties
Did you know? In October of 2010, “Old” General Motors – now Motors Liquidation Company (MLC) – signed a settlement agreement with the United States (along with 14 states and one tribal government) establishing an environmental trust “to address contamination and position for redevelopment 89 industrial plants and other properties used by the former General [...]
18 Feb
Why Derelict Government Buildings are Like Brownfields, Why that Matters, and Why Paintballers are Paying Attention
Here’s a follow-up on last week’s “Don’t Forget to Turn Off the Lights Before You Leave,” our post about President Obama’s June 2010 directive to the federal government to dispose of unneeded and underutilized property — and about the GAO’s subsequent Testimony, released last week, reporting that the process was hitting a lot of speed [...]
11 Feb
Don’t Forget to Turn Off The Lights Before You Leave
I am reminded of Antiques Roadshow, reading – of all things – a June 2010 Presidential Memorandum on the disposition of unnecessary federal real estate. The dusty artifact of unused and underused buildings owned by the government has just been valued at $3 billion. Well, kind of. It’s more like the federal government is wasting [...]
20 Sep
How’s your environmental condition?
It hasn’t gotten a lot of press, but on June 10, 2010, a new Washington State law went into effect requiring disclosure of “environmental conditions” in all commercial real estate transactions. According to a recent article by Marten Law, this law is the first of its kind in the US. The law applies to almost [...]
