Paseo Verde in Philly First to Achieve LEED-ND Platinum

Maximizing mixed use and transportation connections helped this Philadelphia project score the most points since LEED for Neighborhood Development’s creation.

A transit-oriented complex in Philadelphia for low- and moderate- income residents has become the country’s first neighborhood certified LEED Platinum.

The Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha (APM), a Latino community development organization, and Jonathan Rose Companies, one of the developers behind New York’s Via Verde, collaborated to create Paseo Verde—a mixed-use neighborhood with 120 rental units and 30,000 ft² of ground-floor retail and community space.

The $31.3 million complex qualified for a low-interest loan through a state initiative called EnergyWorks, according to GreenSource Magazine, by reducing projected energy use 27% compared to a similar baseline project. In addition to high-performance appliances, each apartment has an individually metered gas-fired heating and cooling unit that can be controlled by the tenant. The projected annual purchased energy use is 40 kBtu/ft².

Paseo Verde scored a high 24 out of 27 for smart location and linkages, an important credit category in LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) 2009; the community is located directly adjacent to the fourth-busiest train stop in Philadelphia, providing easy access to the city center; bicycle storage and a car-share program are also available to tenants. Other services, such as a fitness center, technology center, and medical clinic, are located onsite.

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Paseo Verde

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