Two Liberty Place mitigated capital costs with district steam

The customer

With its memorable tiered glass roof, Two Liberty Place is an iconic part of Philadelphia’s Center City. At 57 stories tall and 1.2 million square feet, Two Liberty Place is the city’s fourth tallest building and one of the two towers of the Liberty Place complex. Designed by the legendary architect Helmut Jahn, Two Liberty Place has been an iconic mainstay of Philadelphia’s skyline for more than three decades. The high-rise building originally housed corporate offices, but was later converted to a mixed-use property with luxury residential condominiums.

Coretrust Capital Partners (Coretrust), a private real estate investment management company, acquired this architectural gem in October 2016.

The challenge

When Coretrust acquired the building, they faced an aging energy infrastructure. The skyscraper’s onsite electric hot water boilers were 30 years old and exhibited declining reliability issues, presenting an expensive upfront capital investment if Coretrust replaced the equipment. Given the building’s heating demand and limited capital funds, searching for an affordable and reliable energy solution was critical.

The solution

With six outdated and inefficient electric boilers, Coretrust and the property management partner, CBRE, opted for Vicinity’s green steam to heat the building over local natural gas and electricity providers. The result was a cost-effective, energy-efficient solution.

Avoiding upfront capital expenditure

By choosing district steam, Coretrust avoided replacing its onsite electric boilers with new, expensive infrastructure, which resulted in avoiding high upfront costs for both Coretrust and the building condo owners. Vicinity’s deep financial resources helped Coretrust connect to the district energy network at a minimal cost, enabling them to provide an affordable and reliable energy solution for tenants. The Coretrust team then redirected this capital for other initiatives and improvements to the building to add value for tenants.

Preserving a finite resource

At Vicinity’s suggestion, Two Liberty incorporated a vertical flooding MCU model heat exchanger. This approach keeps exhaust at low enough temperatures that additional city water isn’t required for cooling, saving additional costs and Philadelphia’s precious freshwater resources.

Driving tenant retention with sustainability

Powered by a highly efficient energy process called combined heat and power (CHP), district steam helps Two Liberty achieve its sustainability goals. Because CHP systems require less fuel to produce the same energy output as single heat and power systems, they reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants.

District energy helps Two Liberty avoid approximately 1,186 tons of annual carbon emissions, equivalent to removing about 237 vehicles from the roads yearly.

Benefits