515 West 43rd Street

How does 515 West 43rd Street compare with other vehicle dealership buildings in New York City?

The latest disclosures cover 36 vehicle dealership buildings in New York City, out of 48,310 buildings citywide. 515 West 43rd Street's ENERGY STAR score of 100 compares with an average of 63 across the 28 that report a score; it scores higher than 82% of them. Its site EUI of 1.9 kBtu/ft² is about 97% below the average of 61.4 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 0.2 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 96% below the group average of 5.3 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 32,500 sq ft, it is about half of the average floor area of 63,524 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1940, 28 years earlier than the group's average year built (1968). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 318 vehicle dealership buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 57 and a site EUI of 62.8 kBtu/ft².

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 100 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: 100 is the top of the scale. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 100 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 New York City, 43% 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. 515 West 43rd Street's 1.9 kBtu/ft² across 32,500 sq ft works out to about 0.1 billion Btu (18 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 5.2 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 17,850 kWh of electricity and 52 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 515 West 43rd Street to report its energy use?

515 West 43rd Street reports under Local Law 84 (LL84), the legal basis of New York City's Energy and Water Data Disclosure program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2024 disclosure (source record nyc:60356595:2024). Under Local Law 97, buildings over 25,000 sq ft face carbon caps with fines of $268 per metric ton of CO₂e over the limit, phasing in from 2024.