
Ed. Note: Michael Kiefer from GreenDCRealty will be contributing a monthly column about various aspects of real estate in DC.
GreenSpur Inc.one of Washington’s exciting new green developers recently took on quite possibly one of the more challenging adaptive reuse projects I have seen in years in an effort to demonstrate that “carbon neutral” construction is possible at all levels, even with a dilapidated pre Civil War era home. This adaptive reuse home at 19 4Th St NE being just blocks from the Nation’s Capitol was to be emblematic of the challenges GreenSpur Inc was looking for, however rebuilding of it was the easy part, the real challenges didn’t come about until the layers of DCRA began to unfold.
As most are familiar dealing with local government agencies in large city there are the normal hurdles that one must overcome to get projects up and running and with DCRA the District’s building regulation department is no different, that is until you start proposing elements of sustainability and historical preservation. Preserving the historic makeup of Washington is something we all want to see and be a part of but we seem to be caught in the midst of some conflicts when it comes to proposing some really exciting opportunities to reducing a buildings total life-cycle impact on the environment. DCRA’s primary focus is to make sure that buildings are constructed properly however their knowledge of some fairly mainstream technologies such as geothermal HVAC systems presented this group with a few more challenges.

Greenspur’s president Mark Turner is no stranger to the DC permitting process, he previously worked as Vice President of Construction for Abdo Development. Personally I was surprised when I heard that it took over 6 months, just to acquire a building permit when all you hear is that the Mayor’s office is seeking to find ways of expanding green development and green collar jobs here in the Nation’s Capitol. After acquiring the building permits DCRA proceeded to shut this firms job down twice for lack of permits, which as anyone who has ever attempted to build something in DC knows being shut down does nothing but cost time and money. From my discussions with Turner he mentioned that DCRA finally acknowledged that the proper permits had already been obtained and that it was an internal issue within their department that caused the delay.
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