Checked out Liberty's new warehouse today...
Talk about huge.
The building comprises about 7.8 acres under its roof and could probably be a great site for a game of roller hockey. (Photos by the News & Record's H. Scott Hoffmann.)
The "green" warehouse, at Liberty Property Trust's new Bull Ridge Industrial Park, celebrates its grand opening today - with catered organic food, a display of hybrid Toyota vehicles, a western theme, live country music and speeches kicking off around 4 p.m.
Liberty hasn't named tenants yet for the building, the country's first speculative warehouse to seek LEED - or green building - certification for both its core and shell through the U.S. Green Building Council.
Ideally, the real-estate company says, a single tenant will snap up the 341,000-square-foot space. But the warehouse could be subdivided for smaller tenants.
At least one prospective tenant who has viewed the warehouse is large enough to fill the entire thing, said Liberty's Amy Amrich.
Liberty has taken a number of "green" measures - a white, reflective roof; recycled building materials; energy-saving lights; parking spaces reserved for energy-efficient cars with low emissions - at Bull Ridge to satisfy Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards.
But it will be up to the tenants to follow up on the company's other visions, including low flow toilets and waterless urinals.
John Brandon, vice president of development for Liberty, said he believes tenants will follow suit, jumping on the green bandwagon to save on utility expenses and other operating costs.
"I think we'll have a lot of success on getting the tenants to do the LEED-quality construction because it's the right thing to do," added Rick Schultze, project executive for Bull Ridge and chief executive of Arco Design/Build.
Liberty has not set a timeline for building its planned identical warehouse on the site. The company plans to seek LEED certification for its second Bull Ridge warehouse, as well.
It's unclear whether Liberty will seek to raise the green rating of the warehouses over time. Bull Ridge currently is just seeking to be certified by taking green measures without dramatically raising construction costs (Brandon estimated a cost hike of about 1 percent associated with a green warehouse versus a traditional one.)
But the Green Building Council offers LEED certificates at advancing levels of silver, gold and platinum. (Other area projects, including the Weaver-Cooke Construction headquarters and the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, are seeking gold certification.)
Brandon said going green isn't about getting recognition.
"We're not in it for the glory," he said. "We're in it for the meaning."
