RetrofitNY Martin Luther King Development

Organization Name: ICAST

Project Title: RetrofitNY Martin Luther King Development

Project Location: Troy, New York

Project Description:
ICAST recently partnered with New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to act as a team lead for their RetrofitNY program. The RetrofitNY program looks to provide a model for existing affordable multi-family buildings to move toward net-zero energy use. The program is intended to create standardized, scalable deep energy-efficient retrofit solutions that can be replicated throughout the housing industry and support New York’s goal’s to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030. ICAST has been working with Beacon Communities on a two-story, six-unit building that is part of a six-building campus in Troy, NY. The ICAST RetrofitNY team took an initial base renovation plan for the property and proposed high performance design components in lieu of basic construction methods to achieve a near net zero property. The project gross floor area is 7150 sq.ft. Two units have two bedrooms, three units have three bedrooms, and one unit has four bedrooms. The goal of the retrofit design was to achieve a site energy use intensity (EUI) of 20 kBtu/sq.ft/year or less, excluding energy offset by Solar PV installation. The final design of the modeled project's EUI at 21.8 kBtu/sqft/year.

Community Impact:
With the design phase of the RetrofitNY project over, ICAST looks to implement the proposed retrofit on the MLK Development building. The retrofit will be a test to gauge if a near net zero design of a multifamily affordable housing property can be performed cost effectively. Currently the cost of the retrofit will be approximately $28,990 per unit, and ICAST is exploring financial programs and incentives that could be utilized in the implementation of these designs. If the model is successful in being able to cost effectively retrofit the project building the implications of potential impact in the multifamily affordable housing community cannot be understated.
The residents of the MLK Development will receive healthier, more efficient and more comfortable homes. If the project proves to be cost effective and scalable its impact in the state of New York and nationally could be enormous, in that it would provide a road map to implementing high performance building retrofits for one of the most underserved and energy inefficient markets. Indeed NYSERDA’s intention with the RetrofitNY program was to achieve such results, emulating the success of the acclaimed ENERGIESPRONG program in the Netherlands.

Organization Description:
ICAST is a 501c3 nonprofit with a 16 year history of designing and launching programs to meaningfully impact low-income communities while advancing access to clean energy and affordable housing. ICAST launched its one-stop-shop retrofit program in 2010 to provide a turn-key approach to energy efficient retrofits for multifamily affordable housing communities. The program has served over 14,000 households, investing over $10,500,000 in communities and saving over $2,519,726 in utility bills and 31,450,000 lbs. of Carbon emissions over the last 8 years.

Team Members:

ICAST, NYSERDA, Beacon Communities, Troy Housing Authority, Staengl Engineering, River Architects, and Bette & Cring Construction Group.