Project Traits
State: New York
Congressional District: NY15
Organization Type: Commercial
Partner Organization(s) Type: None or Unknown
Energy Sector: Buildings
Energy Subsector: Residential, Energy Efficiency
Project Start Year: 2025
Project Launch Year: 2026
Government Support Received: State Grant [Empire Building Challenge] for $3,100,000
Outcomes & Impacts
Private Investment: $33,000,000
Jobs Announced or Created: Unknown
People Served: Unknown
Projected Economic Impact: Unknown
The Towers are two of 13 buildings that comprise AHC’s multifamily campus located in the Bronx. Many of the systems at the property, including the piping distribution system, are beyond their useful life and in poor condition, causing leaks and requiring continual repair and maintenance. The campus currently uses a central gas-powered boiler plant to produce steam for heating, cooling, and domestic hot water.
As part of its recapitalization cycle, the property is embarking on a decarbonization journey which will include a comprehensive retrofit of the heating, cooling, and domestic hot water systems, an envelope upgrade, and onsite renewable generation in the form of geothermal and solar PV.
This project will increase thermal comfort and secure utility affordability for its low-and-moderate income residents, as well as enhance the energy efficiency and climate resilience of the property.
An emissions decarbonization roadmap helps building owners visualize their future emissions reductions by outlining the CO2 reductions from selected energy conservation measures. This roadmap is designed with a phased approach, considering a 20- or 30-year timeline, and incorporates the evolving benefits of grid decarbonization, ensuring a comprehensive view of long-term environmental impact.
The measures used in our decarbonization strategy have been strategically planned based on priorities, as well as to optimize energy and carbon reduction. The approach is to reduce loads first to allow for reduced and properly sized new systems. This sequence enables implementation of the measures because it allows thermal loads to be reduced as soon as possible, before electrification of heating and cooling with the ground source heat pump (GSHP) system. Most critical to the success of the plan are the early implementation of the distribution system retrofit and installation of the wastewater energy transfer (WET) system for thermal energy recovery. Award information: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-six-new-partners-selected-empire-building-challenge-advance-climate