An iconic office building in Downtown Albuquerque just received comprehensive green retrofit and renovation that totals more than $20 million.
Yearout Energy, an energy services company headquartered in Albuquerque, completed the work on a $21.7 million contract with the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions to renovate the Tiwa Building.
The nearly 90,000-square-foot office building at 401 Broadway Blvd NE was built in 1975.
Alex Montaño, Yearout Energy's executive vice president, said the project is one example of what Yearout Energy specializes in: comprehensive projects that provide green energy retrofits for its clients.
The specific renovations at the Tiwa Building include over 1,600 new LED lighting fixtures, upgraded water conservation and a "cutting-edge" HVAC retrofit with a new variable refrigerant flow system, Montaño said.
The variable refrigerant flow technology allows the building to be cooled and heated "all with refrigerant," Montaño said. The fully electric process is a change from the natural gas boilers previously used for heating, he said.
This renovation follows an "electrification" trend in the energy services industry, Montaño said. Electrifying buildings makes them less reliant on fossil fuels for energy.
Part of the retrofit also included installing 30 kilowatts of rooftop photovoltaic solar energy. While on-site renewable energy won't be able to provide all energy for the building, Montaño said it will provide a significant portion of the building's energy thanks to the other efficiency improvements.
Overall, the renovation will reduce the building's energy costs by over $260,000 and its carbon dioxide emissions by 1.2 million pounds, according to a news release.
Other Albuquerque-based companies worked on the project.
Hartman + Majewski Design Group served as architects for the Tiwa Building project, and Enterprise Builders worked as the project contractor. Improve Group provided modular interior office systems and Bridgers and Paxton handled mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering, according to Doug Majewski, the principal architect and CEO of Hartman + Majewski.
Yearout completed an investment-grade audit of the structure in September of 2018, and the retrofit and renovation was completed in August. Early project estimates put its cost upwards of $40 million, Montaño said, but Yearout's audit showed it could complete the renovations for a lot less.
The contract with the Department of Workforce Solutions is Yearout's second largest, Montaño said.
Yearout takes a comprehensive approach to its energy savings performance projects, Montaño said. Instead of taking many smaller contracts that have separate budgets for different parts of a facility, he said that Yearout will secure larger, costlier but comprehensive projects to undergo a more holistic renovation.
"When you bundle it all together in a manner that allows you to think bigger, you actually get a much better solution to really fix your infrastructure issues and make your buildings better than just trying to throw rocks at a tank as your budget allows you to," Montaño said.
Yearout typically completes between five and 10 contracts per year, Montaño said. The company began work on another project with Dora Consolidated Schools earlier this year. The company's CEO, Kevin Yearout, is in talks to develop Northrup Grumman's planned Max Q building with his firm Thunderbird Kirtland LLC.
