Palisades Office Park

Caption: Palisades Office Park

Palisades Office Park, managed by Atlanta Property Group (APG), received the 2021 Excellence in Environmental Sustainability Award from CRE Insight Journal. The award was created to recognize a building or building complex that had undertaken significant environmental sustainability efforts and/or had achieved long-term success in environmental sustainability.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, APG was formed in 2003 to specialize in operating well-located, management-intensive, multi-tenant office buildings. At the time of winning the award, APG owned or operated 17 assets totaling 3.4 million square feet across Georgia and Florida. Additionally, APG had consistently demonstrated excellence in environmental sustainability, having achieved both high ENERGY STAR scores and certifications and LEED certifications across their portfolio.

Invest and Improve

Located in Sandy Springs, Georgia, and comprised of four multi-tenant LEED Gold certified office buildings, the Palisades Office Park complex totaled 639,000 square feet. The primary goal of APG’s sustainable investments at Palisade Office Park was to develop a premier office location with a low carbon footprint along Atlanta’s Central Perimeter submarket. Palisades A, B, C, and D have seen enormous capital investments and significant environmental improvements during the years leading up to receiving the CRE Insight Journal Excellence in Environmental Sustainability Award.

Prior to winning the award, APG upgraded the corridors, lobbies, and exterior spaces in all four buildings through installations of efficient interior LED lighting, biophilic features and finishes, healthier interior design, water-efficient perennial landscapes, and night-sky friendly LED sight lighting. Indoor air quality and green cleaning were another major focus at Palisades Office Park. APG also worked with janitorial vendor Allied International to implement a high-performance green cleaning program to reduce chemical, biological, and particles and improve indoor air quality.

“Years ago, APG senior leadership repositioned Palisades Office Park to become the leader in sustainability goals and initiatives in our market,” says Joe Crawford, Senior Property Manager with APG.

Starting in 2018, APG implemented numerous improvements to the office park. By the end of 2021, all four buildings utilized a fresh air system to cool the building in lieu of running the chiller, and a central loop was installed to connect chilled water at buildings A, B, and C to enable running two chillers rather than three across the buildings. In 2021, Building D installed a Trane Agility Magnetic Bearing Water-Cooled Chiller, which exceeded ASHRAE 90.1-2016 IPLV requirements by more than 40 percent with a 25 percent lower refrigerant charge. At the time, Palisades Office Park was one of less than a dozen buildings utilizing this advanced technology in the United States.

Future Projects

In 2021, Palisades Office Park was ENERGY STAR and LEED certified, having achieved LEED Gold certification at all four buildings in 2018 and a 93 ENERGY STAR score in 2020 for the Palisades D building.

In response to winning the award, the Palisades Office Park and APG property management team said they planned to continue their commitment to performance, efficiency, and sustainability in the future. Specifically, the APG team said they intend to continue their commitment to renewable energy use through installation of a 1-Megawatt solar array, scheduled to be completed in 2022. APG also planned to similarly address water consumption through perennial landscaping and rainwater capturing, with goals of utilizing emerging technology to have an even more restorative water program. Other planned improvements for 2022 included:

  • Converting the entire property to DDC controls, including new Powered Induction Unit & Variable Air Volume boxes in Palisades A, B and C
  • A complete LED lighting retrofit
  • New fanwalls for the air handlers at Palisades A, B and C
  • Implementing a low static air filtration system
  • CO2 based ventilation adjustments
  • Staged chilled water flow with Variable Frequency Drives on pumps
  • Installation of a windwall wind generation system
  • Planting on-site fruit trees
  • Improving the already robust recycling program, currently Palisades recycles 58.6-percent of total waste