Ernst & Young To Save $1 Million Dollars Annually After LED Lighting Retrofit

Ernst & Young recently completed  one  of the largest LED lighting retrofit projects in New York Cty by replacing less energy efficient ligting at its headquarters office building in Times Square.  It is estimated that Ernst& Young will reduce their lighting and mainteance costs by 50% and will save at least $1 million dollars per year in lighting energy costs.The Ernst & Young headquarters building is 32 floors with 650,000 square feet of office space and houses 5,800 employees.

LED Lighting Retrofits Consistent With Firms Energy Policies

"Reducing the carbon footprint of our office space is part of our firm-wide strategy to reduce our environmental footprint as our business grows," says Leisha John, Ernst & Young Americas Director of Environmental Sustainability. "In fact, by the end of 2013, we plan to have a majority of our employees working in LEED and or Energy Star certified space. The completion of this lighting retrofit project in the New York office brings us one step closer to that goal, and will be part of that office’s Energy Star application.In addition to reducing our energy footprint, green technologies like LED help us to reduce our operating expenses, which is a best practice for any company," said John. "This project is the result of the collaboration between several infrastructure groups within Ernst & Young LLP, particularly the Facilities and Real Estate teams, and the Climate Change and Sustainability Services professionals, who advise clients on sustainability practices."

Companies Are Saving Millions of Dollars Per Year with LED Lighting Retrofits

Companies as varied as Ernst & Young, Marriott Hotels and the owner of the Empire State Building are saving millions of dollars by installing energy efficient LED lighting. The reason- LED lighting lasts for years and reduces lighting energy costs by up to 50%. The payback is relatively quick, often less than two years.One hurdle is the upfront cost of replacing your current outdated lighting with the more energy efficient LED Linear replacement lamps.

RedBird LED Inc., an Atlanta, GA. firm that specializes in the design, manufacturing and distribution of high quality energy efficient LED linear lighting products for industrial and commercial applications, has addressed this problem by introducing new LED lighting products that qualify for energy efficient rebates from selected Utility Companies. These Utility Companies are members of the DesignLights Consortium. The DLC recently certified the second RedBird LED Cardinal™ LED Linear Retrofit product.  In May, RedBird LED received certification by the DLC for their 22 watt LED Linear Replacement Lamp at both 4100K and 5000K CCTs.  The RedBird LED 18 watt Cardinal™ LED Linear Replacement lamp  has now also been certified by DLC as a Qualified Product.

 Culminating several years of development and testing, the Cardinal™ LED Linear Replacement Lamp has become both the first, second, and still the only LED tube light in the world to receive DLC Certification.
By establishing the Cardinal LED tube light's position on the Qualified Product List of the DLC, RedBird LED has ensured that these products will be eligible for all rebate programs currently in place among the DLC's membership and will facilitate rapid approval by other rebate sources as well.

Lighting Retrofits Can Reduce Lighting Costs by 55% or More

The 18 watt linear replacement lamp is the most popular model used for one to one fluorescent lighting retrofits of standard 32 watt T8 or 40 watt T12 fluorescent lamps. When retrofitting with a Cardinal LED tube the user will expect to save as much as 55% on their energy consumption when compared to a standard 40 watt T12 model or 40% on a 32 watt T8. With this level of savings and the rebates available, the customer can see paybacks as low as 9 months in many states.  

JonathanEppstein, President of RedBird LED commented, “While we were ecstatic to have been the first, and only LED Linear Replacement Lamp to have qualified for DLC Certification with our 22 watt product in May, the DLC Certification for our 18 watt lamp is an even more exciting event. We expect the DLC Certification of the 18 watt Cardinal Lamp to dramatically increase the adoption and deployment of this breakthrough product.  Having both our 22 and 18 watt LED tubes on the DLC Qualified Product List solidifies our position as the market leader in this sector of the LED lighting industry.”

Contact: info@redbirdled.com  678-RED-BIRD (678-733-2473).

State Farm Expands in Atlanta Bringing 500 New Jobs

This past friday, Governor Deal announced that State Farm, the largest insurance firm in Georgia, is expanding- leasing almost 400,000 square feet of office space at the 64 East Perimeter Center and 66 East Perimeter Center office buildings. State Farm anticipates hiring 500 employees for their new customer service/sales center.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that, "The financial, professional and business service industries account for about one-fifth of Atlanta’s 2.3 million jobs and have added roughly 11,000 positions during the last year." The news from State Farm represents another large increase in professional sector jobs for Atlanta. “Obviously, three years into this economic recovery we still have a very soft labor market in Atlanta and nationwide,” said Roger Tutterow, an economics professor at Mercer University. “So we readily welcome 500 jobs in any capacity.”

This is great news for our city. The same day, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution featured a large screaming headline about Georgia ranking as the number one state for residential foreclosures. An easy headline to write, but the State Farm announcement is very important for many reasons.

 For the real estate industry this is one more major office space lease that takes a large available amount of contiguous office space off the Perimeter Center office market. The Atlanta economy will certainly benefit from these new jobs which will include clerical, technical and management positions.

This is the third time in the last 12 months that State Farm has expanded and announced new job creation. “This expansion is just another way State Farm continues to adjust to meet the changing needs and preferences of our customers," said State Farm Senior Vice President Tim McFadden. State Farm is currently ranked No. 43 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies and has more than 65,000 employees.

The State farm customer service center is expected to open in the Fourth Quarter of 2012.

Terminix Saves 20% on Office Space Rental Costs Through an Early Renewal and Extension of Their Office Lease

Terminix, recently signed a new office space lease to remain in their current office space. They were able restructure their current office space lease and an early extension for 15,762 square feet for their regional contact center in Norcross. Terminix will not only reduce their rental costs by 20 percent , they will also receive capital for improvements to  the entrance and lobby of the their office.

Many companies are looking to reduce their real estate costs by taking advantage of current market pricing and conditions. A creative way to do this is to restructure your current lease through an Extend and Blend leasing agreement. The Extend and Blend is simple amendment to a current lease that extends the length of the lease and usually includes additional incentives from the building owner. These incentives can include reductions in rental rates, operating expenses and in some cases tenant improvements. 

Terminix was able to reduce their real estate costs by planning early and signing an extension while they still had more than a year left on their current office lease. Because the office space vacancy rate for the office submarket is high and Terminix is in a growth phase , the landlord was motivated to keep Terminix as a tenant in their building. Terminix announced this year that they would be hiring additional workers at this regional call center.

For more information on the Extend and Blend lease program please download the Extend and Blend leasing program brochure. 

Complimentary Course on FAS 13 Accounting Changes

John davis version fasb 13 iasb 17 (2)

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How Will Lease Accounting Changes Impact Sale/Leaseback Transaction

Many CFOs have realized many benefits in the past from sale/leaseback transactions. Selling Commercial property and leasing it back has allowed many companies to free capital that has been tied to real estate and redeploy this capital more strategically. New lease accounting changes may change this market dramatically. This topic was recently addressed in an article In CFO Magazine.

Space Race
By Russ Banharn


...All of this would sound even better if it were not for the proposed changes to lease accounting currently on the table. The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board have both proposed major alterations in lease accounting (see "Taking the 'Ease' Out of 'Lease'?" December 2010). Under the proposals, tenants would be required to place the obligation to pay rent over the entire lease term on their balance sheets as a liability. Right now, only the current rent is booked on the financials, as an expense on the income statement. Many observers predict these changes will be adopted.

If so, those companies seeking to spruce up their balance sheets by eliminating mortgage-debt obligations through a sale-leaseback may change their minds, since a lease liability would effectively treat all leases as a capital lease, which would gum up the balance sheet. "If a company is trying to raise capital, a sale-leaseback would still be a very viable option," says NorthMarq's Houge. "But the proposed changes to the accounting standards will affect other agreements, such as credit agreements requiring a minimum debt coverage ratio, and that could be a problem."

Others predict that future sale-leaseback deals will involve shorter-term leases, in the 3-to-5-year range. "If the rules change, the longer the lease, the greater the liability, so companies may want shorter leases than the typical 10-to-20-year term that makes sale-leasebacks work," says White of Real Capital Analytics. "It comes down to a financial decision: if you can borrow unsecured debt cheaper than what a real estate investor is offering, you may pass."

to read the full article please visit
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/14550844/3/c_14551704?f=search

Surplus Property Course for CFOs

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