UB Stratford Develops Net Zero Facility

UB Stratford develops new facility slated for Net Zero
July 23, 2021 – Connecticut
Stratford, Conn.-based UB Stratford I, LLC (UB Stratford) recently has developed a new self-storage facility that utilizes nearly $400,000 in energy efficiency incentives, which will save an estimated $40,350 in annual energy costs. Energy engineers from AVANGRID, Inc. subsidiary United Illuminating (UI) and development and construction consulting firm Chandler, LLC optimized existing plans for the new 130,000-square-foot building, leveraging incentives available through Energize CT to enhance the already energy and environmentally-conscious design and increase solar energy readiness. The new facility is part of an open-air shopping center, which aligns with UB Stratford’s renewed interest in developing and renovating similar properties.

“This was one of those situations where economic decisions and environmental benefits aligned, ” says Stephan Rapaglia, the COO of UB Stratford’s parent company, Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. “The availability of the UI energy incentives were really important to the success of this project. Without the generous UI incentives, it may not have made economic sense for us to move forward with the project and build this new facility.”

UBP has a long history of retrofitting and improving existing open-air community shopping centers across the NY-CT-NJ metropolitan area. To guide UBP through energy efficiency measures and incentives available for this new construction project, they tapped the expertise of UI energy
engineers, including Brandon Mark, and Steven Chandler Hall, founder and managing director at Chandler, LLC, who says, “My job was really to implement ideas and use alternative equipment that would push the efficiency to 37.5 percent better than code. Any developer should be using integrated project management teams that include energy efficiency expertise. Taking advantage of those incentives really helps with the bottom line and provides a great return on investment.”

The newly constructed UB Stratford facility, which houses a self-storage business, is an emerging Net-Zero Energy building, meaning the amount of energy produced by on-site renewable energy sources is intended to equal the amount of energy used there. The benchmark is expected to be
achieved through the environmentally-conscious design of the building, the implementation of specific technology within the building, such as heat pumps, energy-efficient LED lighting and energy-conscience heating, cooling and ventilation systems, and the use of renewable energy from
a rooftop solar project. Exterior efficiency measures taken include LED parking lot and canopy lighting.