Budget woes force green building to cut back
By: Katie Worth
Examiner Staff Writer
August 3, 2009
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| Starting from scratch: An unsafe building at 525 Golden Gate Ave. was demolished to make way for the PUC’s new digs. |
Scaling back on expectations for a windmill-laden, water-recycling 12-floor office building for the Public Utilities Commission will allow the delayed project to move ahead.
Leaders of the San Francisco PUC have been fantasizing for years about a new dream home, which was designed and set to break ground last year until it was held up thanks to the usual suspect: cost.
The $190 million PUC building, slated for 525 Golden Gate Ave. at Polk Street, will still be one of nation’s greenest buildings — qualifying for the elite LEED Platinum environmental designation — but project managers have cut back on some of its most expensive and least effective green design features, PUC spokesman Tyrone Jue said.
The building is still slated to have waterless urinals, a wastewater recycling system, a solar roof and wind turbines, he said.
But the design no longer calls for microfilm solar panels embedded in the windowsills, which a third-party review team said would cost a lot to replace down the road, Jue said.
The automatically operated windows and fancy “localized natural ventilation system” on each floor will be replaced by manually operated windows and a centralized ventilation system that will be less expensive and equally green, he said.
The seismically unstable building at 525 Golden Gate Ave. was demolished in June, and the foundations for the new building should be complete in September, Jue said. Construction of the building could begin by spring of next year and should be complete by December 2011.
The PUC still hopes to have part of the building paid for by federal stimulus dollars. Jue said the agency is pursuing about $18.2 million to help pay for the buildings sustainable features, such as the low-impact design, solar panels, recycled water piping and wind turbines.
More funding for the project has come from the sale of some surplus PUC property for $32.8 million and the agency will use about $19.3 million of its own capital funds, which are paid for by ratepayers.
The remaining $120 million in costs will come from the sales of “Certificates of Participation,” a bond-like financing tool. That money will be paid back during the next 30 years with money the agency will be saving by not paying for the leases on its current buildings at 1145 and 1155 Market St.
This funding plan must be approved by the Board of Supervisors, and will be presented to its Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday, Jue said.
kworth@sfexaminer.com
Paying the bills
Sources of money for the new San Francisco Public Utilities Commission building
Building and land sales $32.8 million
Certificates of Participation proceeds $120.3 million
Federal stimulus grants (not yet secured) $18.2 million
PUC funds $19.3 million
TOTAL $190.6 million
