Apartment rentals New York with Green Buildings

5 Luxury, Energy-Efficient Rentals in Battery Park City

View of Battery Park City's waterfront from the Verdesian luxury rental apartments.

Battery Park City, bordered by the Financial District on West Street, is planned community located on the southwestern tip of Lower Manhattan and a prominent example of community renewal. Surrounded by the Hudson River on three sides, this 92-acre stretch of land has grown into an intimate part of New York City that flawlessly balances urban living with an array of scenic views and green spaces.

What Makes NYC’s Green Buildings So... Green?

What makes NYC's green buildings so... green?

Given that it is Earth Day today, we decided to check in with some of our green buildings in New York City, and find out what they actually do to be, well, green! Kermit the Frog may have said that “it’s not easy being green,” but these rental buildings prove that incorporating eco-friendly features in your home doesn’t mean that your luxury lifestyles will be compromised—on the contrary, they enhance it! Here are some examples of how some Manhattan residences are boosting their green quotient:

Glassy MiMA Gets Greener With LEED Certification

It’s hard to take your eyes off MiMA once you have seen it. This 63-story glass tower is stunning and awesome, one of the few new residential apartment buildings in Midtown Manhattan that is definitely hard to miss. This mixed-use building is known for a lot of things: its amazing luxury rentals, its hotel, its dog spa its signature theater complex designed by Frank Gehry, and the celebrities it seems to attract to its premises. And now, One MiMA Tower has another new feather to add to its  cap—the building has just been awarded the LEED Gold Certification by the United States Green Building Council, making it a fabulous building that is also environmentally friendly.

Green Retrofitted Buildings on the Rise in NYC

For NYC dwellers on the hunt for an apartment, green residences might seem more of a nicety than a necessity. But by 2030 high-rise city real estate is going to get a whole lot greener, and hopefully a whole lot more affordable. A recent study has found that simple energy-conserving technology can save landlords bundles, and the statistics endorse New York City’s continued push for citywide environmental initiatives. To keep the city’s green-o-meter rising, new laws mandate many large buildings keep a public tab on their energy efficiency. The desired outcome is green new developments and retrofitted buildings. But what will the impact of all this paper shuffling be for renters, and does this look like a greener NYC or a pipe dream?

NYC Enacts New Green Laws

NYC Luxury Condos - New Green LawsThe people have spoken, and their cries for New York City to “go green” have convinced lawmakers to finally measure the amount of energy consumption in commercial and city-owned buildings. Eventually, residential buildings will also be subject to this law, allowing prospective tenants an easier -- and more objective and valuable -- time in searching green apartment listings. All of which means that it’s nearly time for landlords to choose between going green… or simply going. According to Crain’s New York, which scathingly calls over-users “energy hogs,” New York City’s new program, aimed to measure the amount of energy consumed in nearly 25,000 commercial buildings, requires landlords to report their energy usage numbers. More specifically, it is targeting buildings larger than 50,000 square feet, mandating the submission of their most recent numbers focusing on the consumption of electricity, gas, oil and water. City-owned buildings are placed under even more stringent requirements, having to turn in reports for those that are 10,000 square feet or more.

Battery Park City: LEEDing the Way in Green Rentals

There’s a lot of green in New York City…well New York City’s real estate market, and we’re not talking about money. Green building is a hot trend, and LEED certification is a surefire way of adding some appeal to what would otherwise be an ordinary rental. One of the more recent additions to Manhattan’s green rental market is Liberty Green in the city’s most sustainable neighborhood, Battery Park City. Yet Liberty Green is not alone; sustainability is rapidly-growing trend around the world, and New York City in particular.

Battery Park City has become a green mecca in Manhattan for a few reasons, aided by the fact that it is privately owned. All new property, both rentals and general real estate, must satisfy LEED requirements, a policy dating back to 2000, far before many other places followed suit. As a result, there is a vast array of green renting available in Battery Park City, with The Verdesian, The Solaire, Tribeca Green, and Liberty Luxe all certified at least to LEED Gold standards and open for new residents.

Emerald Green Offshoots: Developers Behind Garment District Green Rental Emerald Green Planning 39th Street Spin-Off

There's no sense in trying to hide it: we at Luxury Rentals Manhattan love the Garment District's Emerald Green. The LEED-certified green rental building is not only one of the more intriguing new green rental listings in Manhattan, but Emerald Green's location -- 320 West 38th Street, if you're curious -- in a neighborhood otherwise fairly short on luxury rental listings (green or otherwise) makes it an especially intriguing development. More intriguing is the news that Glenwood, the heavy-hitter Manhattan real estate developers behind Emerald Green, are planning an Emerald Green sequel in the same neighborhood, at 330 West 39th Street. Even if Emerald Green weren't such a favorite of ours here at Luxury Rentals Manhattan, this would be an interesting development.

Verdesian, Solaire Developer Sheds Some Light on Green Rental Apartments (Among Other Things) in New York Times

When Christopher Albanese speaks, the Luxury Rentals Manhattan blog listens. This is because Albanese's real estate development company, The Albanese Organization, has developed some truly extraordinary green rental buildings in Battery Park City: the Solaire and Verdesian. Two of the greenest green apartment listings in Manhattan, the Solaire and Verdesian were trend-setters in the burgeoning market for green rental apartments in Manhattan, and happen to be pretty beautiful buildings beside. Given your blogger's admitted soft spot for green apartment buildings, the Solaire and Verdesian are sentimental favorites of a sort, but the apartments for rent at the Solaire and Verdesian are also among the most popular rental listings here at Luxury Rentals Manhattan, so the favoritism isn't entirely sentiment-driven.