Crosstown Concourse

Challenge

Crosstown Concourse was designed to serve as a catalyst for growth in the arts, education and healthcare in an under-served area of Memphis. Crosstown Concourse building managers, Commercial Advisors, and the Crosstown Development Team knew that increasing the market value of the property, and creating a financially and environmentally sustainable “vertical urban village” was essential to revitalizing the neighborhood.  

With this mission in mind, they established a series of strategic goals to create value for property owners, including: lowering operational costs, promoting sustainability, and maximizing asset potential. The group sought the resources of a strategic partner to support them in building this multi-use community space.

“Going forward, the development has to be an ongoing money maker, otherwise it is a disservice to the community,” said Bradley Wilford, vice president, asset management, Commercial Advisors. “The property will eventually be run by a non-profit board and the dollars will go back into the community.”

Solution

The Crosstown Development Team and Commercial Advisors, the property management firm for the project, selected Trane as their sustainability, systems and building controls partner based on a successful long-term relationship coupled with Trane’s innovative thinking, real estate industry knowledge, and commitment to the project’s success. 

Charged with redesigning systems of a 90-year-old, abandoned warehouse, not built for the business, residential, education or retail establishments, Trane led a cohesive effort to address system design. Trane hosted a gathering at their La Crosse, Wisconsin, production facility where the team’s developers, engineers, and property managers worked with Trane to identify the most efficient holistic design.

Meeting new design requirements, reducing energy use
To accommodate low load conditions, the original HVAC system design consisted of four 525-ton centrifugal chillers, one 100-ton screw chiller and five cooling towers. Through collaboration and the leveraging of Trane's systems expertise, the group was able to bring a new perspective to the challenge of creating a new system design to support the building. “It was a 30-year decision, and we wanted to look at things differently,” said Dan Chancey, senior vice president, asset management, Commercial Advisors. “Our goal was to get the chiller down to 10 percent capacity; we watched them get it down to 5 percent. We were able to buy fewer chillers with more tonnage. It was more efficient, less costly, and we now have open space for storage or to rent.”

Optimizing operations, improving efficiency, and managing energy consumption
Beyond system design, it was critical to set Crosstown Concourse up for ongoing success and sustainable operations.  Through a combination of smart building technologies and comprehensive digital and mechanical services, Trane supported Crosstown’s needs for an optimized, efficient building.  

The Trane Tracer® Ensemble™ cloud-based building management system, and energy meters were installed and used to optimize daily operations, track and bill tenant energy use, troubleshoot issues, establish scheduling and make setpoint changes. The system provides real-time energy monitoring to identify where and when the building consumes energy, and expertise and insights from Trane are used to uncover opportunities and provide recommendations to optimize equipment performance, reduce operational costs, reduce carbon emissions, and drive measurable results. Pairing these features with 24/7 Active Monitoring enables proactive diagnosis of issues, faster alarm resolution, and improved technician productivity.

An interim Trane service agreement helped keep systems running at peak performance during this complex construction project. Post construction, a comprehensive service program was put in place, with two full-time, on-site Trane technicians integrated into the building maintenance team, enabling them to learn internal systems, tools and software, while they provide staff coaching and training. Preventive maintenance on all core equipment helps reduce failures, downtime, energy use, and service costs. Predictive analytics by Trane engineers detect inefficiencies and potential failures, helping to avoid unplanned outages and costly emergency repairs.

“We chose Trane as a partner on this project based on many years of experience showing us that our expectations would be fulfilled.” - Dan Chancey, Commercial Advisors, BOMA Fellow

Results

Working together, Commercial Advisors and Trane provided solutions to achieve greater efficiency, showcase sustainability, reduce operational costs, enhance comfort, and increase asset potential of the Crosstown Concourse community. The team helped the developer realize more than $250,000 in capital first cost savings, plus reduced life cycle costs of well over $1.3 million over next 20 years. In addition, a 50 percent reduction in mechanical assets opened up 3,500 sq ft of physical space that could be used to generate additional revenue. Trane continues to work with Crosstown Concourse to develop a public education curriculum to promote the importance of energy use and sustainability.

"The collaborative effort was focused on doing what was best for the property," added Chancey, "If Crosstown Concourse influences other investment in the neighborhood, becomes an economic catalyst for growth, and helps to eliminate area blight, that's when we’ll know the project was a success."

• Trane helped the development team reduce upfront capital costs by over $250,000

• Building occupancy increased to 98 percent (2020) while energy costs and carbon emissions – driven by advanced real-time analytics by Trane engineers - reduced 3 percent year-over-year since the building’s 2017 re-opening

• On track to save $760,000 in annual utility costs and 8,400 tons of carbon emissions/year compared to LEED baseline

• Earned Energy Star certification with a score of 89

• Largest and oldest LEED Platinum Adaptive Reuse Building on the planet (2017)

• Development Team received the Trane Energy Efficiency Leader Award (2018)