The $142 million Northfield shopping center in the Stapleton redevelopment will serve as a national model for environmentally efficient retail construction as part of a pilot program with the U.S. Green Building Council.
The Green Building Council, which has created “green-building” guidelines for commercial, residential and government buildings, is in the process of setting similar standards for retail and entertainment projects.
Northfield – a 1.2 million-square-foot development near Interstate 70, Interstate 270 and Quebec Street – will be among the first projects to implement the guidelines. Feedback from developer Forest City Stapleton will be used to finalize the standards when they are formally adopted next year, said Taryn Holowka, a spokeswoman for the Green Building Council.
Environmentally sustainable construction is beginning to gain traction in the retail industry and was recently urged by former President Clinton at a retail-industry conference in Las Vegas. So far, however, most green building has been limited to individual retailers such as Wal-Mart, which debuted an environmentally sustainable test store in Aurora last year.
Shopping-center developers have struggled to follow suit largely because they control the shells of their buildings, but tenants control their own interior space. Because of that, the Northfield pilot will be limited to the center’s exterior, management offices and public spaces. The development has nonetheless emerged as the first in the country to get all of its tenants to follow additional environmental guidelines.
Retailers in Northfield will be required to implement 17 environmental initiatives and will receive financial and other incentives for adopting additional guidelines.
“We are trying to change the way retailers do business and developers do business,” said Brian Levitt, project developer for Northfield.
The Northfield management offices will include carpet made from recycled material, a solar panel, skylights and a daylight harvesting system that will dim interior lights as sunlight filters into the building. Public rest rooms in the project will feature waterless urinals, and retail tenants will be required to use environmentally approved cleaning products, Levitt said during a tour of the development Tuesday.
Forest City has also purchased wind energy for a portion of the project.
The Main Street portion of Northfield, which will be anchored by Macy’s and feature a collection of retail and restaurant tenants, is scheduled to open in October. Harkins Theatres, Bass Pro Shops, SuperTarget, Circuit City and Qdoba are already open on the site.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
