NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA - Balfour Beatty Communities, LLC, a leading provider of property management, development and related real estate services for the multifamily, military, and student housing markets, took home a top prize at the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) 2014 International Builders Show recently held in Las Vegas, NV. Balfour Beatty Communities was awarded the NAHBGreen Award for Project of the Year: Low-rise Multifamily for their Rio Bravo/Van Horn development at Fort Bliss, Texas. The award recognizes excellence in sustainable building as part of NAHB’s prestigious annual awards program honoring home builders for advancing green building through innovative design and construction techniques. Diana Kinlaw and Doug Howard from Balfour Beatty Communities were on hand at the International Builders Show to accept the award.
The Rio Bravo and Van Horn developments are part of the 4,400-home community at Fort Bliss that is managed by Balfour Beatty Communities, and together represent the first and largest military housing project to achieve Emerald status under the National Green Building Standard (NGBS) certification program. The project is Balfour Beatty’s first sustainable urban neighborhood, a special designation for the Company’s communities that have homes built to the NGBS Emerald level, utilize renewable energy, and maintain programs for resident education about sustainable living.
“The NAHBGreen Awards represent the best of the best in green building practices and advocacy efforts, and this year’s group of winners is particularly impressive,” said NAHB Chairman Rick Judson, a home builder from Charlotte, N.C. “The demand for green building is growing exponentially, and these honorees are a great example of what can be accomplished in terms of sustainable and energy-efficient building practices.”
The Rio Bravo development is a multi-phase project that will result in 536 townhome units consisting of two-story, four-plex arrangements, as well as one-story duplex accessible units. Sustainable features include: double pane low-e windows, hybrid electric water heaters, increased envelope sealing and insulation in walls and roof, water-efficient fixtures, energy efficient refrigerators, and efficient HVAC systems. The development also touts a 70 percent increase in energy efficiency over traditional privatized military housing building standards, thanks to the integration of energy efficient equipment. In addition to efficiency inside the homes, the development is partially powered by rooftop solar.
“As part of our extensive work in the privatized military housing sector, we have developed innovative methods to build homes that rank within the top 1% of the nation in terms of efficiency,” said Diana Kinlaw, Balfour Beatty Communities regional project director. “This is a key component of our involvement in the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge and a compelling offering for communities of the future.”
The project, slated for completion in January 2016, is being constructed by Balfour Beatty Construction and was designed by SAIC, Inc.