The Creamery

This project went beyond Michigan's green policy for LIHTC tax credits. The state only required LEED silver then, yet Hollander took the project to LEED Platinum and included an all-electric in-unit appliance and mechanical package. All because it was the right thing to do, and it was important to the company owner to reduce emissions resulting in climate change.

The creamery is part of a long-term multi-year development in partnership with the city, and it worked with the local community over many design charrette meetings to determine what best would serve the residents on this brownfield site. Out of this, nine dedicated workforce housing units serve the growing labor shortage in the city and state. They also partnered with the Kalamazoo YMCA to boost the mixed-use space to "create Michigan's first comprehensive early childhood learning center that includes first, second, and third shift twenty-four-hour drop off day care services." One of the residents in the community opened a yoga studio in the additional business space in the building as one recent success story. These types of community initiatives brought in more funds, working with social impact investors and allowing the project to meet higher sustainability goals than required by the state. "When we talked to those funders, we said we were going for LEED Platinum. They were very excited, and when people scoffed at the perceived additional costs of going LEED Platinum, we could fall back on the fact these investors wanted these goals to be met. It diffused any conversations about reducing sustainability goals."- Matt Hollander.

Sustainability features include zip sheathing, and exterior insulation, focused on reducing compartmentalization. For HVAC, they leverage hyper-efficient air source heat pump mini splits. These are modern-looking units with hard surfaces, heat pump dryers (no penetrations), energy star appliances, energy recovery ventilators, and direct vent range hoods. The solar is 36 KW powering the commercial space, but the roof and building are designed solar-ready to add up to 75 KW in the future to attempt to take the building net zero if possible.

Overall, the project developer, Matt, recognizes the value of the LEED Green Raters and admits that getting them onsite more throughout the process greatly ensures sustainability goals are met. "We need to be more vigilant in terms of when our green building consultants are on site doing inspections, and even if we have to pay more for additional inspections, LEED or not, we want them on site more, not less, and we want to be having more regular interactions with the contractors to deal with while under construction" - Matt Hollander.

Matt's next project will target Passive House, and he convinced Michigan to add Passive Houses as a bonus option to its green QAP LIHTC policy for competitive bidding, using this project's success to assist in that.