The Natural Step

The Green Building Ordinance codifies what the development industry was already inclined to do. Architects made headway with developers on greening their buildings when the incentives to fast-track the permitting process were introduced in 2006. The market value of green building is high, but development in San Francisco is low. The city currently has two cranes floating above it, representing two commercial development projects that were permitted before the ordinance passed. General Growth Properties, one of the nations largest developers of shopping malls, filed the largest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history (Jonas, “General”). “Everyone is worried about money,” said architect Robert Baum, including the Department of Building Inspection, who laid off 25% of their staff effective May 1, 2009. The industry is intertwined with banking and sources of financing are limited. According to Sam Chandan, president and chief economist at Real Estate Economics, “We will see a significant rise in delinquent and defaulted mortgages in commercial real estate above and beyond what we already experienced.” (ibid) The irony is that construction costs have free-falled and it’s cheaper to build a LEED certified building today then its ever been.