650 Massachusetts Ave - Recertification

650 Massachusetts Avenue is an eight-story, 326,000 square-foot office building located in the expanding East End submarket of Washington, D.C. This property is located at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue, NW, and 7th Street, overlooking the historic Mt. Vernon Square, Apple Flagship location at Carnegie Library, and the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

The building has achieved a variety of certifications over the years. The building has had a long commitment to ENERGY STAR Certifications as well as LEED EB O+M Gold Certifications but more recently Brookfield has pushed the building to the next level by achieving Fitwel 2 Stars certification, WELL Health-Safety Rating, and the new UL Healthy Buildings certification.

Brookfield has been using the Arc Platform for over two years now to track the energy, water, and waste performance for their DMV portfolio, which includes 650 Mass Ave. Brookfield sees this platform as an easy way to monitor the performance of their buildings. The Arc Platform is also a great next step for the property in order to set it up for recertification under the LEED v4.1 O+M Rating System.

The O&M team at 650 Mass Ave took several new initiatives and made adjustments to the existing systems to prioritize the occupant's health, wellness, and safety. Some of the measures are: extensive air ventilation assessment by a third party to verify the system's highest supply rate of outdoor air, its impact on energy consumption, and achieving a balance via temporary and permanent measures during and post-pandemic. For additional air quality, the project upgraded its filtration media to MERV 15. As part of their re-occupancy program, the building also underwent an extensive inspection program where UL inspected IAQ for PM2.5, PM10, CO2, VOC, thermal conditions, HVAC systems, building pressurization, and moisture. The project has also installed WellStat Air Monitoring devices throughout the building to analyze the air quality and measure all these parameters on a regular basis. Brookfield saw this as a great way to further confirm the good overall air quality within their buildings. Cleaning policies were revised to focus on high-touch surfaces, fragrance-free hand-soap, and WHO's handwashing signages in every bathroom to spread awareness. Many high-touch surfaces and areas have been made hands-free like bathroom faucets, bathroom doors, entry/exit doors. All the elevators have Nanoseptic coating (self-cleaning via oxidation) on the elevator buttons and handrail.