Case Study

Stovroff Towers

Deep energy retrofit creates new affordable housing

This case study was chosen as part of the Empire Building Challenge competition. Click here to learn more about the Empire Building Challenge competition.

Project Highlights

Energy Savings

78%

The LIHTC-renovation will enhance the naturally occurring affordable housing at Stovroff Towers and preserve the property’s long-term affordability. The redevelopment project will invest in energy reduction measures that reduce site energy use intensity over 78%, transforming Stovroff Towers into a vibrant community for vulnerable populations.

Testimonial

“NYSERDA’s Empire Building Challenge (EBC) inspired a creative and efficient pre-development phase that will make the renovation of Stovroff Towers truly transformative. This Project will serve as an inspiring demonstration for similar buildings committed to reducing their carbon footprint in a meaningful way.”

Christina McPike
Vice President, Energy & Sustainability
WinnCompanies

Energy Savings

The EBC Project demonstrates geothermal and distributed hydronic systems as a replicable retrofit technology in cold climates. Stable ground temperatures will enable design of a geothermal borefield that includes 12 bores drilled to 500 ft depth, providing 34 tons of heating and cooling, which will meet 100% of the annual heating and cooling load.

Step 1

Step 1: Examine Current Conditions

A baseline assessment is key to understanding current systems and performance, then identifying conditions, requirements or events that will trigger a decarbonization effort. The assessment looks across technical systems, asset strategy and sectoral factors.

Building System Conditions

System Failure
Equipment nearing end-of-life
New heat source potential
Comfort improvements
Indoor air quality improvements
Facade maintenance
Resilience upgrades
Efficiency improvements

Asset Conditions

Repositioning
Recapitalization
Capital event cycles
Tenant turnover/vacancy
Building codes
Owner sustainability goals

Market Conditions

Technology improves
Policy changes

Since its completion, Stovroff Towers has suffered long-term programmatic issues due to single-occupancy efficiency units without full-service kitchens and limited on-site resident services. Vacancy rates have averaged 75-80%, leading to a severe operational deficit and extensive capital needs. These circumstances catalyzed Winn’s involvement at the site, which will utilize LIHTC financing from New York State’s Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) to fund a major recapitalization and comprehensive renovation that addresses capital and operational needs. Winn has a successful track record developing and preserving housing in the upstate region, where the relative cost of construction and energy is low and need for high quality affordable housing is high. The property’s existing needs informed the decarbonization scope, which will not only result in significant energy reduction and carbon emissions, but will improve the building’s passive resiliency, durability, and indoor living environment. The high efficiency all-electric equipment and building envelope upgrades will also reduce operating costs for the building owner and future residents and contribute to New York State’s building-sector decarbonization goals. The decarbonization retrofit scope is well-aligned with the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and NYS HCR’s Existing Buildings Sustainability Guidelines and provides replicable, cost-efficient solutions that can be applied to future renovations and recapitalization events.

Step 2

Step 2: Design Resource Efficient Solutions

Effective engineering integrates measures for reducing energy load, recovering wasted heat, and moving towards partial or full electrification. This increases operational efficiencies, optimizes energy peaks, and avoids oversized heating systems, thus alleviating space constraints and minimizing the cost of retrofits to decarbonize the building over time.

Existing Conditions

This diagram illustrates the building prior to the initiation of Strategic Decarbonization planning by the owners and their teams.

Click through the measures under “Building After” to understand the components of the building’s energy transition.

Sequence of Measures

2025

Building System Affected

heating
cooling
ventilation

Electrical Upgrades and Smart Thermostats

Step 3

Step 3: Build the Business Case

Making a business case for strategic decarbonization requires thinking beyond a traditional energy audit approach or simple payback analysis. It assesses business-as-usual costs and risks against the costs and added value of phased decarbonization investments in the long-term.

Decarbonization Costs

$13.2M

Cost of ECM #1 – Exterior Envelope Insulation: 2.5M.

Cost of ECM #2 – Triple Pane Windows: 1.2M.

Cost of ECM #3 – Roof Replacement: 1.1M.

Cost of ECM #4 – Geothermal/Water-Source-Heat-Pump System: 3.1M.

Cost of ECM #5 – DHW Central CO2 Air-to-Water Heat Pump: 805k.

Cost of ECM #6 – Energy Recovery Ventilation: 2.2M.

Cost of ECM #7 – Electrical Upgrades: 2.1M.

Cost of ECM #8 – Rooftop Solar PV: 194k.

Cost of ECM #9 – Smart Thermostat: included in mechanical number.

Business-as-Usual Costs

$4.6M

Energy cost savings: 37k.

BAU cost of system replacement/upgrades: 4.5M.

Business-as-Usual Risks

$0

Decarbonization Value

$8.4M

Incentives/Tax credits: 1.4M.

Valuation: 7M.

Net Present Value

TBD

Net difference between the present value of cash inflows and outflows over a period of time.

The decarbonization scope of work was selected because it achieves performance objectives while limiting capital cost, maximizing operational cost and carbon emissions savings, and preserving original architectural features important to the local community. The total cost of the ECMs is approximately $13,240,378 and the total development cost of the renovation is $43,180,406. While these costs are high, they are in line with similar deep energy retrofit projects, far more affordable than new construction, and beneficially create new deed restricted housing for the State of New York. The EBC scope is anticipated to reduce operational costs by $37,000 annually, which will help with long-term operations; however, energy cost savings alone do not support overall Project costs.

This level of investment is only possible with state resources such as NYSERDA’s Empire Building Challenge funding and LIHTC financing, which will allow Winn to create new affordable housing that is also energy efficient and fossil fuel free. In the absence of a LIHTC award, another real estate developer could acquire the property and upgrade interiors and replace systems in kind for $4.5 million, which would be a short term and short-sighted undertaking that invests in new gas infrastructure. The sustainability goals for the project are integral to the property’s transformation, the marginal cost of which cannot be supported with energy cost savings alone. However, the true net cost of ECMs, less business-as-usual in-kind replacement, NYSERDA funding, investment tax credit, and other incentives, is $4,327,764, which can be supported with debt and equity. The decarbonization roadmap provides many benefits to Stovroff Towers, including carbon neutrality by 2040, futureproofing against carbon mandates and stranded assets, and marketability. Stovroff Towers are better and stronger with the decarbonization scope and are worthy of this level of investment.

Strategic Decarbonization Action Plan

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.