Photovoltaics and Wind Turbines Infuse Colorado Development
Developer draws on multiple strategies to reduce impact, increase sustainability—and save money

by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: At a whopping 104 acres and 22 blocks, the Belmar development in Lakewood, Colo.—just minutes outside Denver—easily could have been a tremendous drain on local and natural resources. Developer Continuum Partners decided instead to reduce their impact by recycling most of the content of the former Villa Italia Mall on the site and incorporating an array of sustainable strategies, including a 1.7 Mw solar array and a small-scale urban wind farm.

Belmar has promoted responsible use of limited natural resources and the reduction of energy use from the outset of the project. Embracing the tenets of mixed-use development, Belmar was designed to reduce personal automobile reliance and promote pedestrian traffic and mass transit by crisscrossing the development with multiple regional bus routes. In addition, prior to starting site work, the developer saved approximately 130 mature trees from the original site, transplanted them to a temporary nursery, and later replanted them in the development.

Approximately halfway through construction currently, at full build out Belmar will eventually contain approximately 3 million square feet of developed space, says Matt Stokes, a development director with Continuum. Included in the Belmar development at present are roughly 550 residences, 70 stores, and 14 restaurants. They also have an arts district with galleries, studios, and The Lab, a civic institution dedicated to contemporary art and thought. The Lab offers art exhibitions by leading regional, national, and international contemporary artists, weekly lectures, and creative adult education programs.

Laying the green foundation
Continuum Partners spent more than $4 million to purge water and soil contamination on the site (PCE, PCBs, hydrocarbons) and remove asbestos and hazardous materials from the former buildings before demolition. Instead of putting the construction material from the demolition of the previous mall structure into a landfill, Continuum recycled 88 percent of all materials by weight for reuse. More than 2 million square feet of asphalt originally on the site was milled into more than 40,000 tons of base material that was used for temporary roadways and the base under building slabs. Some 200,000 tons of concrete from the original mall slab were crushed and reused on site, the weight of which is equivalent to approximately two aircraft carriers. All steel, copper, and aluminum was taken to recycling centers, and numerous glass doors, windows, and light fixtures have been reused in Continuum’s downtown headquarters office and the on-site sales and leasing office.

The company also drew on the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® criteria to guide the design and development of many buildings in the project. A three-story mixed-use building has received LEED Silver certification, as have the buildings that house a natural foods grocery, beverage store, and two adjacent mixed-use buildings and retail spaces. Belmar’s housing also was built to meet high levels of efficiency and sustainability. The McStain townhomes are Energy Star® rated, and the Harvard Courtyard Homes conform to the Environments for Living® program requirements.

Alternative energy strategies
To reduce the ecological strain that results from the development’s annual energy use, Belmar is currently in the process of installing an array of 8,370 photovoltaic panels. The panels will be installed on three parking garages, including the natural foods store, and will measure 125,000 square feet total. The 1.7 Mw array will generate approximately 2.3 million kilowatt-hours of electrical energy per year, or roughly 5 percent of Belmar’s total power consumption. Each PV cell will collect solar energy that will be converted from DC to AC voltage and fed into the Xcel energy grid. Xcel will then sell the reduced-cost electricity back to Belmar to power the garages.

Two other clean energy strategies in use at Belmar are solar-powered pay-and-display parking kiosks that manage 350 on-street parking spaces and an on-site urban wind farm. “There are 14 wind turbines [each about a foot in diameter] that we placed on top of the light poles in one of our service parking lots,” explains Stokes. “They throw out enough power to feed most, if not all, of the costs to light that parking lot.”

Stokes says that aside from the very important ecological benefit, Belmar receives two key advantages from the alternative energy sources. “It’s going to do two things,” he says. “One is that it’s going to stabilize our energy expenses because we’ve locked in on a rate with Xcel. Two is that over time, as energy prices increase, the rate that we’ve locked in will keep our costs stable.” Stokes anticipates that the array will be fully operational this fall.