St. John Properties, Inc., a commercial real estate development, management and investment company headquartered in Baltimore, MD and founded in 1971 by
Edward St. John, is celebrating its 50-year anniversary with a renewed focus on building sustainability and growth.
Their 21 million-square-foot real estate portfolio – including more than 1.5 million square feet of commercial space across four business communities in the Denver metro area — is valued at over $4 billion, spans eight states and serves more than 2,500 clients. St. John Properties is one of the top five developers of LEED space nationally and intends to continue to be a leader in sustainability innovation with a mission to deliver buildings that produce more energy than they
use, and to further refine processes that improve indoor air quality while boosting employee wellness and productivity.
“The conservation of energy and natural resources, along with the ongoing need to develop and innovate environmentally-friendly buildings have become a priority in attracting new tenants,” explained Edward St. John, founder and chairman of St. John Properties. “We have become the gold standard in formulating and executing a feasible and sustainable plan for green architecture and will continue evolving in the future.”
A key mission of St. John Properties is to develop sustainable buildings constructed with materials that contribute to an eco-friendly environment while maintaining indoor environments that promote employee wellness and conserve energy and resources. In an effort to fulfill this mission, the company was one of the first organizations to establish a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program in 2009. Led by a dedicated team of full-time sustainability professionals, St. John Properties has now constructed 87 buildings comprising more than five million square feet of LEED-certified space.
Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED is the most widely used green building rating system in the world and provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings. Recognized as Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia’s top LEED developer and among the top five developers of LEED space nationally, St. John Properties has a goal of reaching 100 LEED-certified commercial buildings, totaling six million square feet of space by 2023.
Last year St. John Properties received the Maryland Chapter of U.S. Green Building Council’s “Community Change Agent” award for outstanding efforts in designing and constructing healthy buildings and for the company’s overall impact and leadership in the LEED initiative. The company’s innovative UV Whole Building Air Purification process, announced earlier this year, is a multi-step strategy that features the installation of UV-C light disinfecting systems designed to eliminate airborne pathogens such as fungal spores, bacteria and viruses that can pass through a building’s HVAC equipment. The process involves replacing existing HVAC air filters with higher-efficiency models that capture more airborne particles; upgrading coil cleaning and HVAC system sanitation, resulting in increased airflow; and utilizing longer HVAC runtimes, allowing for more frequent fresh air circulation throughout a building. To date, St. John Properties has installed these upgraded HVAC systems in 23 of their multi-story office buildings, comprising nearly 2.4 million square feet of space. The company plans to implement these systems during the construction of all new multi-story office buildings going forward.
In an effort to support the use of energy-efficient electric vehicles, St. John Properties has installed electric vehicle charging stations at all newly constructed multi-story office buildings across their portfolio. Forty-six charging stations have been installed since 2011, and the company has committed to ensuring all new office and flex/R&D buildings will be EV-ready by proactively installing infrastructure to support future demand for charging equipment.
One of the company’s sustainability goals is to roll out a scalable and economic solar approach on top of all building types and to deliver buildings that naturally produce more energy than they use, in order to create a net positive. Future sustainability endeavors also include a focus on building health and wellness and a continuation of their LED lighting program, which has resulted in the upgrade of more than 10,000 lighting fixtures throughout the St. John Properties portfolio to date.
Watch the 50-year anniversary video: https://vimeo.com/646634494/5559fbcebc
