Green for green buildings

When Jen and Randy Lewarchik purchased the apartment building six years ago, they knew the 90-year-old structure needed some work. Its intricate tile flooring, aged wood fixtures and leaky roof had been neglected for decades.

The couple was taking inventory of the basement when they found the sign: "This building will be open in May 1935."

"To my knowledge, that was the last time it was refurbished," Randy Lewarchik says.

Since then, the Lewarchiks have renovated, modernized and "greened" many of the 47 one-bedroom and studio units, the hallways and the operating systems of the building, located at Brainard Street and Second Avenue in the Cass Corridor.

Like others in the green building movement around the city and the country, they're looking to improve efficiency, save on utility bills and do what's right for the environment, they say.

And they're hoping to do it with the help of a federal program that has allocated $30 million for green building improvements in Michigan. About $10 million of that is earmarked for public and commercial buildings roughly along the Woodward Corridor in downtown Detroit.

"These buildings are old. They need some TLC. We're trying to package this to be the tipping point so the work gets done and the buildings don't continue to languish in terms of their energy efficiency," says Scott Veldhuis, senior project manager at the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., which approves the projects and helps administer the SmartBuildings Detroit Program.

Projects can receive grants of as much as 25 percent and loans of as much as 40 percent of total costs to a maximum of $100,000. They can include digital thermostats, building sealant, better insulation, windows and more advanced technologies, such as solar panels and geothermal systems.

"When the grant was finalized, we helped think through a process that would work for building owners to enable them to understand the energy needs of their building and also the financing needs," says Diane Van Buren, a consultant with Henry Ford Community College's Michigan Technical Education Center.

Of the $10 million, about $6.1 million is for public and institutional buildings, and $3.9 million for privately owned structures. Of the $3.9 million, $1 million is a loan pool, $1.9 million is for direct grants and $1 million is for administration, energy assessments, a training component and follow-up on the projects, Van Buren says.

Recruitment of private owners like the Lewarchiks has just started, Veldhuis says. Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) — better known as "stimulus money" — the SmartBuilding program makes the $10 million available in an area of roughly bordered by the river, the New Center, the Lodge Expressway and I-75. The $10 million is part of $30 million that was awarded to the state through the ARRA grant. About $20 million is being funneled to residential improvements through a number of organizations. The Detroit Economic Growth Corp., a quasi-public branch of the city, is overseeing the $10 million commercial component.

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