850 River Ave

How does 850 River Ave compare with other retail store buildings in New York City?

The latest disclosures cover 525 retail store buildings in New York City, out of 48,310 buildings citywide. 850 River Ave's ENERGY STAR score of 29 compares with an average of 62 across the 270 that report a score; it scores higher than 24% of them and lower than 76%. Its site EUI of 92.3 kBtu/ft² is about 23% above the average of 75.0 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 6.4 kgCO₂e/ft² is roughly in line with the group average of 6.5 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 27,500 sq ft, it is about 66% below the average floor area of 81,524 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1937, 25 years earlier than the group's average year built (1963). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 3,025 retail store buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 73 and a site EUI of 57.7 kBtu/ft².

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 29 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 29 means the building performs better than about 29% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 29 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 46 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. 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. 850 River Ave's 92.3 kBtu/ft² across 27,500 sq ft works out to about 2.5 billion Btu (744 MWh-equivalent) in 2022. Its source EUI of 181.4 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 389,250 kWh of electricity for the year.

Which law requires 850 River Ave to report its energy use?

850 River Ave 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 2022 disclosure (source record nyc:6936502:2022). 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.