Arlington County, Virginia released a groundbreaking draft plan to dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and enhance its economic competitiveness. The Arlington County Board is expected to adopt the plan in June of 2013. HR&A, led by Principal Stockton Williams, worked with Arlington County to develop the plan and supporting policies.

“Arlington County’s commitment in its Community Energy Plan (CEP) to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 75 percent over the next several decades is one of the strongest statements any community in the world has made about the importance of moving to a cleaner energy system,” said Williams in the news release from Arlington County. “The County’s comprehensive approach, laying out paths of action in buildings, transportation, and clean energy generation, should create substantial economic and environmental benefits for the businesses and residents of the County, while enhancing the high quality of life for which Arlington has long been known.” The draft CEP is available for download here.

HR&A Principal, Cary Hirschstein, will be moderating a panel at this year’s 2012 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo on Thursday, November 15th in San Francisco. Greenbuild is the world’s largest conference dedicated to green building and sustainability. The panel, “Testing Innovative Financing Tools for Multifamily Retrofits,” focuses on the opportunities and challenges of unlocking new capital for energy efficiency improvements. Its theme builds on a ground-breaking study that HR&A completed for the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation and Living Cities examining the accuracy of energy savings projections in 230 retrofit projects and translating findings into an approach for lenders to underwrite against those projections.

The panel will also highlight two innovative programs and their approaches to unlocking new capital for multifamily energy retrofits. Anne Evens, the Chief Executive Officer of CNT Energy, and Angela Ferrente, Director of Alternative Energy Solutions at Energi, will discuss two very different approaches to risk mitigation currently underway in Chicago and nationwide, respectively.

Airbnb, the online marketplace for people to list and book accommodations around the world, announced with Mayor Bloomberg today that it was launching a free platform enabling New Yorkers to list homes and extra space for victims of Hurricane Sandy. People who are looking for a place to stay can access free spaces via Airbnb’s Donated Sandy Housing Directory at https://www.airbnb.com/sandy.

The online service, founded in 2008, is a leader in the emerging sharing economy. It has created economic benefits for its hosts, distributed the benefits of tourism to off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods, and brought new economic spending to cities from visitors who are price-sensitive and seek a “live like a local” experience they may not otherwise find in conventional accommodation. Airbnb also enables cities to become more competitive by attracting skilled workers and incentivizing relocation with innovative short-term stay opportunities.

HR&A recently completed a study of Airbnb’s benefits to the economy of San Francisco and is currently studying its impacts on New York City.

Mayor Bloomberg’s press release can be found here.

The County of Westchester, NY, recently selected Sustainable Playland, Inc., a not-for-profit partnership between County residents and business leaders, to redevelop the historic, 280-acre Rye Playland amusement park. For years, redeveloping Playland has been a priority for Westchester County due to its desirable location on Long Island Sound and its heavy reliance on public subsidy.

HR&A supported Sustainable Playland’s successful proposal to reinvent and manage the park by: identifying new uses and changes to existing uses that are market and financially feasible; creating a proforma to demonstrate the viability of each project component; and suggesting a framework for on-going stewardship of and funding for the project.

Sustainable Playland’s successful development proposal, which preserves the historic amusement rides and includes a water park, a field house and outdoor playing fields, indoor and outdoor skating rinks, an event facility and public outdoor space, was recently profiled in the New York Times.

Jamie Springer will be speaking with LowLine founders Dan Barasch and James Ramsey at the LowLine Breakfast organized by the Forum for Urban Design on Friday, September 21. The LowLine is Barasch and Ramsey’s proposal for an innovative, community-oriented public space in an abandoned trolley terminal beneath Delancey Street on the Lower East Side. The speakers will discuss this exciting concept for a new kind of underground public space, which will preserve the valuable historic elements in the site while introducing remote skylights that deliver sunlight below ground to support plants and trees.

Since April, HR&A has been engaged in a preliminary planning study of the LowLine concept, working closely with engineers at Arup and legal experts at Kramer Levin to analyze the economic, physical, and legal feasibility of the project. The HR&A Team has determined that the concept is physically feasible and can support a variety of benefits for the Lower East Side, including the creation of a valuable community and cultural amenity activated by a variety of programming, the preservation of an important historic artifact, the improvement of access to the Delancey-Essex Station, and the development of innovative lighting technology. HR&A has also worked with Barasch and Ramsey to develop a business case and financially self-sustaining operating model for the space.

The LowLine Breakfast coincides with the Imagining the LowLine technology exhibit showcasing a working prototype of the LowLine’s remote skylight technology in the Essex Street Warehouse. The exhibit is open and free to the public from September 15-27.

The Government of Kenya in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group), recently retained HR&A to create an implementation plan for the first phase of an exciting new technology industry hub and mixed-use community called Konza Technology City. Konza will be located on a 5,000 acre site in the Nairobi metropolitan area, along the A109 highway to Mombasa. When fully developed, Konza will help Kenya become a world-class center for the technology industry and achieve middle-income country status, and improve the quality of life for Kenyans.

HR&A is leading an international team across many disciplines including architecture, planning, and strategy consulting. We are producing a business plan both to guide the Kenyan government through Konza’s development and to attract potential project developers, investors, and tenants. HR&A is currently identifying market opportunities that can be advanced in the first phase and strategies for financing upfront infrastructure costs.

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority is seeking proposals for a long-term master lease of the Fulton Center. This signature development will include approximately 65,000 sq. ft. of retail/commercial space and over 50 revenue-generating multimedia displays at one of Lower Manhattan’s most prominent retail sites.

When completed in June 2014 the Fulton Center will link 9 subway lines, PATH service, and the World Trade Center Site, serving as a gateway for approximately 300,000 people daily.

The RFP, which may be downloaded here, covers three parts of the $1.4 billion Fulton Center:

• The Fulton Building: a prominent new glass pavilion with 5 floors of retail surrounding a distinctive light-filled atrium lined by a light sculpture by Jamie Carpenter.
• The Corbin Building: a fully-restored national historic landmark that offers eight floors of commercial development opportunity with a signature retail space along Broadway.
• The Dey Street Headhouse and Concourse: a pavilion across Broadway from the Corbin Building that contains a retail storefront and large-format video wall facing Broadway and leads to a concourse that connects the entire Fulton Center complex to the World Trade Center site.

The RFP is due November 2. The MTA will hold a pre-proposal conference on September 21st to describe the opportunity in greater detail.

The New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH) recently released HR&A’s study of the economic impacts of affordable housing in New York State. The report showed that affordable housing spurs significant statewide economic activity, creates jobs, and helps revitalize communities. HR&A found that every dollar in public investment leverages over a dollar in private investment. Annually, affordable housing development generates $1.3 billion in public investment and $1.5 billion in private investment, which supports 31,800 construction-related jobs across New York State.

The report also includes case studies of key affordable projects in the Bradhurst neighborhood of Harlem, and in the Plymouth Exchange area of Rochester. In a NYSAFAH press release, Don Capoccia, president of NYSAFAH’s board of directors, stated that, “This report demonstrates the extraordinary impact and fundamental need for affordable housing in New York State. Our industry clearly plays a key role towards economic recovery.”

HR&A’s full report, entitled “Economic Impacts of Affordable Housing on New York State’s Economy,” is available here.