The award has come thanks to 16 months of efforts by Crescent Resources to manage the property and furnish the offices with environmentally friendly fittings. Transwestern dealt with the commission, design, installation and maintenance of the systems. LORD Green Real Estate Strategies Incorporated acted as building consultants.

Now the proud owner of the US Green Building Council certification, the eight-story office buildings total 415,000 sq ft of desk space and are located on Fairview Road alongside 75,000 sq ft of retail facilities and 180 luxury residential apartments.

LEED is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System governed by the US Green Building Council and its key purpose is to uphold standards for environmentally sustainable building design. Thus far it has accredited 1.062 billion sq ft of development space with environmentally-friendly status. The Gold LEED rating requires a score of 60-79 points out of 100 plus an extra ten available for Innovation in Design and Regional Priority.

At the heart of the SouthPark area in Charlotte, Piedmont Town Center boasts a range of facilities and amenities in a mixed-use development site. Currently it offers in excess of 3.7 million sq ft of office space on the urban development park just four miles from the CBD. Aside from being only eleven miles from Douglas International Airport, the business site is accessible via I-77 and I-85 providing ample transport links.

Pam Padgett of Crescent Resources property management told Globe St.com about the new award, “The LEED Gold rating puts the office towers among Charlotte’s elite green facilities.”

Commercial real estate company Grubb and Ellis, who specialise in property sector market research, have released figures indicating that national office vacancy rates will exceed 18% this year and are at their highest ever.

Conditions are expected to ease and according to figures market recovery is scheduled to commence in 2011. This will be welcome news for property owners who are currently struggling to negotiate concessions with tenants in order to fill vacancies.

In 2009, lease rates for office space was down 10-15% from the previous year.

More resilient commercial market locations, such as San Francisco and New York, are expected to fare better with full recovery estimated to be complete in just two or three years.

Four or five years is the alternative recovery time for weaker areas of US office space while cities who are experiencing commercial real estate growth should anticipate a boom when the market finally finds its feet.

Credit crunch unemployment left hundreds of offices unmanned and vacancy rates soared. As a result, landlords had no option but to compete with lower rents and incentive deals in order to secure tenancies.

The declining market gave many companies the chance to upgrade their office space, exceeding what would have been affordable to them prior to the downturn. But current conditions are not predicted to endure; with the US jobs market stabilizing, the commercial property market is set to follow suit.

Chief economist of Grubb and Ellis Robert Bach has indicated that although landlords are navigating through a difficult time, those in search of office space can expect favourable deals, “This year, I think we will have more tenants decide that now is a good time to sign a longer-term lease because the deals landlords are offering are so good.”

Terra CRG will be the new tenants of 592 Pacific Street after moving from their current office lease at Sunset Park. The move is thought to coincide with their new plan to target a new area of development.

Their former site gave them an advantage in cornering the South Brooklyn market whereas the new location will open the company up to cover the Atlantic Yards area.

592 Pacific Street lies across from the Atlantic Yards development near to the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues in Park Slope. Their offices have been recently refurbished and open up 2,500 sq ft of desk space to the realty company.

The company have also been expanding its workforce to cope with their wider catchment area of real estate, nearly tripling the size of their workforce in 2009. Terra CRG was founded by Ofer Cohen in 2008 to be a boutique commercial property broker specialising in the Brooklyn property market.

Neighbouring landmarks include the Atlantic Terminal and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Terra CRG already have a wide market as Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City with approximately 2.5 million inhabitants.

Atlantic Yards is a multi-use commercial and residential development consisting of 16 high-rise buildings and the Barclays Center, the proposed home of the National Basketball Association’s New Jersey Nets. Forest City Ratner of Cleveland are overseeing the project with SHoP and Ellerbe Becket taking charge of designs since Frank Gerhy was removed as chief architect.

Reaching 61,159 feet tall, the building has been long established on the site having been designed and constructed in 1954 for Manufacturers Hanover Trust by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

The glass-fronted offices now belong to Tahl-Propp Equities who acquired the office space in 2000 from Chase. It was previously bought for $22 million but it is currently estimated to hold a mortgage of $33 million. Chase still own a branch in the mezzanine of the building.

It was the first glass bank in Manhattan and marked a changing tide in New York office design of its time. Due to its landmark status the owners must adhere to various protection constraints on original features of the building, such as its enormous vault door. This has led to problems in capitalising on the commercial real estate potential of the building, so the new interest shown by Vornado Realty comes at the right time.

Design-wise, it is a boxy construction and much in line with a predecessor constructed by the same developers two years prior at Lever House.  Clad with wide untinted windows and aluminium supports, the building opens up a wealth of airy space.

Steven Roth and Michael Fascitelli are leading the interest from the real estate investment trust while Norman Bobrow and Associates are representing the owners in discussions.

The new office space development is just one of the companies competing for tenancies in the Buckhead neighbourhood. The Lenox Building and the Two Alliance Center are two office blocks competing with the Phipps Tower to secure occupants for their desk space.

The communications firm that specialises in industry training will take up a tenancy in the 20-storey tower, which is a joint venture between Crescent Resources and Manulife Financial.

The Phipps development is located at the intersection of Peachtree Road, Lenox Road and Phipps Boulevard at the heart of the Buckhead business district. It is located opposite the Phipps Plaza and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on the GA-400 corridor situated on the Buckhead loop.

The 500,000 sq ft building is a striking example of modern architectural design, with a contemporary glass and aluminium façade fronted by a terraced garden plaza. Its plush interior decor spares no expense, with a dramatic marble-floored lobby accented by panels of honey onyx and wood panelling.

The office space itself is airy and furnished to the highest standards with full scale windows flooding the space with light and offering excellent views of the Buckhead panorama. Local amenities include over a hundred shops, eateries and bars in the surrounding area.

Aluminium supplier Novelis Inc. has recently agreed to consolidate its headquarters in the Lenox Building with an expansion to neighbouring spaces in the Phipps Tower and Two Alliance Center, sparking competition between the two office spaces to secure tenancies.

Investment management company W.P. Carey have bought the JPMorgan Chase Operations Center office site from Brookfield Real Estate Opportunity Group, a branch of Brookfield Asset Management.

The sale follows the recent news that Brookfield had acquired 2.9 million sq ft of real estate from JPMorgan Chase. George DuGan, President and CEO of W.P. Carey & Co. LLC, commented on the company’s commercial real estate purchase in a company press release, “The acquisition of the JP Morgan Chase facility adds a well-located, quality property leased to a premier tenant to our public company property portfolio.”

Part of the CentrePort Business Park near the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, the facility was previously on a long-term lease to JPMorgan Chase Bank. The 1,200 acre Business Park on 4690 Diplomacy Road has attractively landscaped grounds and multi-use spaces divided by green boulevards.

Neighbouring companies to have taken up over 150 tenancies on the expansive premises range from call centers to distribution offices and manufacturing operations. Businesses to occupy office space on the office campus have included household names such as Whirlpool and Countrywide Financial, as well as being home to the American Airlines headquarters.

W.P. Carey will have big shoes to fill as JPMorgan Chase Bank employed the second highest number of staff to occupy the space with 1,941 staff. However, this is merely a fraction of the 25,457 American Airlines staff who use the facilities.

With more than 34,200 employees making their way to work on the campus every day, the airport and highways make the site easily commutable. By road the park lies between Highway 360 to the west and Highway 183 to the north. Further advantageous transport links serving the area include the Trinity Railway Express commuter rail station on Statler Boulevard.

Yum Brands Incorporated and Yum Restaurants International, a Louisville corporation of which Pizza Hut is an affiliate branch, will be accompanying the restaurant giant in their move.

A new “restaurant support center” estimated to cost in the region of $20 million will be created on 20.5 acres of the Legacy Business Park.

Plans for a three-storey building have been drafted as part of an economic incentive scheme from Plano, offering grants and tax breaks of $2.35 million in order to stimulate commercial growth in the area.

At least 450 new employment opportunities will be created with the arrival of new offices.

The development scheme will also include grants to cover the cost of moving as well as a new test kitchen for the pizza company.

Property tax breaks are expected to continue until 2021 with a 50 per cent city tax abatement for real property and 50 per cent abatement for business personal property, expected to save the fast food corporation $36,700 a year in tax payments.

However, to fulfil the requirements necessary to gain the bonuses, Pizza Hut need to create a minimum office base of 160,000 sq ft by the start of 2012. According to reports from Business First, Plano has brought 4,500 new jobs and $150 million of economic growth to the region through their incentive scheme in the past year alone.

Pizza Hut are currently located at 14841 Dallas Parkway located on the Dallas North Tollway.

The MTA will occupy 112,940 sq ft of desk space and the move will consolidate several of their services under one roof from across New York city.

News of the acquisition marks an upturn for the fortunes of the site. Steven Durels, Director of Leasing and Real Property at SL Green disclosed in a press release that the “lease raises office occupancy at the building to over 81%” and further stated, “It’s a tremendous accomplishment given that the building was scheduled to be 100% vacant only five months ago.”

SL Green Realty, a self-administered real estate investment trust, acquired the 349,896 office tower in 2007 for $184 million having completed two other projects in the local area. One of which was a $14 million development eastwards at 29 West 34th Street and a $30 million venture at 1551 Broadway. SL Green hold approximately 300,000 sq ft at eight properties in total as well as further suburban assets.

The Manhattan office space one block from Penn Station received $26 million in infrastructure renovations and offers its tenants on-site amenities such as parking and a cafeteria, alongside a recent $4.5 million lobby and storefront redevelopment.

The new tenants will be housed alongside The Segal Co. who recently took 156,000 sq ft of office space from floors two through five in the plush commercial property. Rent rates are currently reported to be $42 per sq ft.

Cushman and Wakefield brokered the deal while Citigroup Realty Services and Citigroup Capital Markets and Banking collaborated with the seller.

In a bid to withdraw production from China and return manufacture to home workers, Peerless are gathering their resources into one modern facility. The decision was made in 2009 to relocate their industry efforts to home ground.

The planned new headquarters will be the 1997 established 2300 White Oak Circle in Aurora on Interstate 88 near Eola Road. Peerless will occupy 307,813 sq ft of desk space on the 22.5 acre plot with their sights set on a further 22,000 sq ft expansion.

State intervention offered a $2.9 million investment package to leverage $17.5 million in private investment to enable the company to upscale.

One of the first plans of action for the new occupiers will be to retrofit the building with energy-efficient systems. Solar panelling, wind turbines and eco-friendly T5 fluorescent lighting are scheduled to be added in order to maximise the efficiency of the office space and modernise the facility.

This is the fourth move for the A/V distributors and each time has marked a doubling in office space. The Aurora site offers a further 500,000 sq ft for expansion, opening up possibilities for the company to grow well into the future.

The ‘Gateway Project’, as it is known, will boost office space capacity from 300,000 sq ft to nearly 1 million sq ft as part of the massive expansion scheme. A main draw for the biotech industry is that South City has already established a hub for the biotech industries with 70 companies having found a home there.

New office space campuses will be developed by Chamberlin Associates while the area’s infrastructure of roads and sewers will be supplemented to serve the new industry community.

In terms of increasing the area’s economy, it has been projected that 2,500 permanent jobs will be created by the addition of new offices, while 5,000 temporary positions will be made available to local job-hunting residents.

Having been approved by a redevelopment agency, the project is estimated to begin construction before the start of 2012.

Other developers are eager to get a slice of the action, with the proposed plans for Centrum Properties’ SFO Logistics Center anticipated to add 52,000 sq ft of new office space to the South City region. Figures from the outset suggest the 26 acre development will come at the cost of $23 million.

The consolidation of the biotech industry follows the trend for other industries combining their power in one hub of activity. Recently, the Motorola company has explored options to move their headquarters from Chicago to Silicon Valley in a bid to be closer to technological industry resources and stay ahead of their competition.

Mike Lappen, Economic Development Co-ordinator for South City, told San Francisco’s The Examiner that he is optimistic the new venture will safeguard future growth, “Now we need to look at other businesses associated with biotech. We need to stay ahead of the curve, like Silicon Valley and how it constantly reinvents itself — we need to be doing that.”