Parkside Plaza Condominium

How does Parkside Plaza Condominium compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Montgomery County?

The latest disclosures cover 553 multifamily housing buildings in Montgomery County, out of 1,766 buildings citywide. Parkside Plaza Condominium's ENERGY STAR score of 93 compares with an average of 80 across the 514 that report a score; it scores higher than 61% of them and lower than 35%. Its site EUI of 48.6 kBtu/ft² is about 13% above the average of 43.2 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 323,886 sq ft, it is about 63% above the average floor area of 198,668 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1965, 24 years earlier than the group's average year built (1989). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 59,945 multifamily housing buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 70 and a site EUI of 59.0 kBtu/ft².

How has Parkside Plaza Condominium's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 2 Montgomery County disclosures for Parkside Plaza Condominium, covering report years 2023–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 82 in 2023 to 93 in 2024 (+11 points). Site EUI moved from 53.5 kBtu/ft² (2023) to 48.6 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 9% decrease. Reported emissions went from 1,155 tCO₂e to 1,042 tCO₂e over the same span (down 10%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 93 mean?

ENERGY STAR scores run from 1 to 100 and are computed by the EPA's Portfolio Manager as a percentile against similar buildings nationwide, adjusted for climate, size and use: a score of 93 means the building performs better than about 93% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 93 falls in band A — high performer (85–100). Scores of 75 or higher meet the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification; certification itself is a separate, verified application that the disclosure does not record. In Montgomery County, 53% of scored buildings are at 75 or above.

Site energy-use intensity (EUI) is the energy a building uses on site in a year divided by its floor area, in thousand Btu per square foot — lower is more efficient. Parkside Plaza Condominium's 48.6 kBtu/ft² across 323,886 sq ft works out to about 15.7 billion Btu (4,613 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 83.2 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,747,938 kWh of electricity and 97,695 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Parkside Plaza Condominium to report its energy use?

Parkside Plaza Condominium reports under the Benchmarking Law (Bill 2-14) / BEPS (Bill 16-21), the legal basis of Montgomery County's Commercial Building Energy Benchmarking program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2024 disclosure (source record montgomery_county:19926179:2024). Montgomery County's BEPS (Bill 16-21; regulations approved in 2025) sets declining site-EUI standards for buildings of 25,000+ sq ft, with interim and then final standards later this decade and into the 2030s depending on building type.