Palisades Office Park, managed by Atlanta Property Group (APG), received the 2021 Excellence in Environmental Sustainability Award from CRE Insight Journal. The award recognizes a building or building complex that has undertaken significant environmental sustainability efforts and/or has achieved long-term success in environmental sustainability.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, APG was formed in 2003 and specializes in operating well-located, management-intensive, multi-tenant office buildings. APG owns or operates 17 assets totaling 3.4 million square feet across Georgia and Florida. APG has consistently demonstrated excellence in environmental sustainability, achieving both high ENERGY STAR scores and certifications and LEED certifications across their portfolio.

Invest and Improve

Located in Sandy Springs, Ga., Palisades Office Park is a complex of four multi-tenant LEED Gold certified office buildings totaling 639,000 square feet. The primary goal of APG’s sustainable investments at Palisade Office Park is to develop a premier office location with a low carbon footprint along Atlanta’s Central Perimeter submarket. Palisades A, B, C, and D have seen enormous capital investments and significant environmental improvements during the last several years.

APG has upgraded the corridors, lobbies, and exterior spaces in all four buildings through installations of efficient interior LED lighting, biophilic features and finishes, healthier interior design, water-efficient perennial landscapes, and night-sky friendly LED sight lighting. Indoor air quality and green cleaning have been another major focus at Palisades Office Park. APG also worked with janitorial vendor Allied International to implement a high-performance green cleaning program to reduce chemical, biological, and particles and improve indoor air quality.

“Years ago, APG senior leadership repositioned Palisades Office Park to become the leader in sustainability goals and initiatives in our market,” says Joe Crawford, Senior Property Manager with APG.

Since 2018, APG has implemented numerous improvements to the office park. All four buildings utilize a fresh air system to cool the building in lieu of running the chiller, and a central loop was installed to connect chilled water at buildings A, B, and C to enable running two chillers rather than three across the buildings. In 2021, Building D saw the installation of a Trane Agility Magnetic Bearing Water-Cooled Chiller, which exceeds ASHRAE 90.1-2016 IPLV requirements by over 40 percent with a 25 percent lower refrigerant charge. Palisades Office Park is one of less than a dozen buildings utilizing this advanced technology in the United States.

Future Projects

Today, Palisades Office Park is ENERGY STAR and LEED certified, achieving a LEED Gold certification at all four buildings in 2018 and an impressive 93 ENERGY STAR score in 2020 for the Palisades D building. Palisades Office Park and APG will continue their commitment to performance, efficiency, and sustainability in the future. They have numerous projects on the horizon to continue advancing their commitment to environmental sustainability.

Though the property has achieved ENERGY STAR and LEED certification, APG intends to continue its commitment to renewable energy use through installation of a 1-Megawatt solar array to be completed in 2022. APG is similarly addressing water consumption through perennial landscaping and rainwater capturing, with goals of utilizing emerging technology to have an even more restorative water program. A few other improvements slated for 2022 include:

• Converting the entire property to DDC controls, including new Powered Induction Unit & Variable Air Volume boxes in Palisades A, B and C
• A complete LED lighting retrofit
• New fanwalls for the air handlers at Palisades A, B and C
• Implementing a low static air filtration system
• CO2 based ventilation adjustments
• Staged chilled water flow with Variable Frequency Drives on pumps
• Installation of a windwall wind generation system
• Planting on-site fruit trees
• Improving the already robust recycling program, currently Palisades recycles 58.6-percent of total waste

Commercial Real Estate Insight Journal is the leading, on-demand resource for real estate professionals. It features a rapidly growing collection of real estate industry insight recorded in articles, webinars, publications, and videos. The CRE Insight Journal Awards program recognizes excellence in the real estate industry in areas such as tenant care; environmental sustainability; collaborative service; thought leadership; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and more.

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