Density is Green!

As a person working in the field of Downtown Development, this is a project that urbanists like myself find extremely compelling and now that I have a Blog (which I hope people will take the time to look at), I can expound upon the reasoning.

MINIM would be our first mixed-use LEED Certified (GOLD) built in downtown. Hopefully this post will serve as an opportunity for more people to become better acquainted with this project because it would be a tremendous "feather in the cap" for downtown Winston-Salem.

(I am going to skip a long explanation on the merits and definitions of LEED Certification and the work of the US Green Building Council, and simply suggest that you visit their website at http://www.usgbc.org for a full description). This trend has gained enormous notoriety across the world and Winston-Salem is just beginning to get into this game. Two noteworthy projects include the Interior Construction of the 3rd Floor of Traders Row on Trade Street in the Arts District and Family Services new building.

The developer, 4th Street Investors, plans to build this new modern 11-story mid-rise at the southeast Corner of Fourth and Cherry Streets. The project will restore the 5-story 12,500 SF Legal Aid Building and will result in the new construction of a new 48,000 SF structure with 11 floors. The plans also call for "green" features in the interior plans which are too in-depth for me to get into here. If you would like to find out about details, you should contact the MINIM Sales contact Katie Pepper @ 336.725.1371 or katiep@wrcp.com

There is much more that could be said about this project, however, I would suggest to any person who is interested in sustainability and would like to own a workspace or residence downtown, this is a project that you might want to investigate. 4th Street Investors recently sent out a press release where they reported that 7 of the 15 condos have been reserved and one office floor has been sold. They have also announced that Southern Community Bank and Trust has signed a lease for a walk-up ATM Plus in the ground floor of the Legal Aid Building.

This project is obviously unique and will likely be attractive to a unique niche of buyers, people who are interested in environmental sustainable lifestyles. This is a positive for this building, because there is no other similar project like it. In many other communities across the country, there has been tremendous success with the construction of LEED Certified buildings for all types of buildings. I hope that this project becomes another one of our success stories in our downtown.