ENERGY STAR Labeled Building Profile

Nestled in the heart of the thriving commercial area of Torrance, California, South Bay Tower comprises 291,561 square feet of offices. This 8-story Class A high rise office tower proudly displays a clean granite-clad exterior and a two-story quiet, elegant lobby with inlaid granite floors and walls. Serving this unique facility is a five-level free standing parking structure, with 991 stalls with convenient access for tenants and guests. Located near world-class restaurants and hotels, the South Bay Tower has an Energy Performance Rating of 94 and has achieved the ENERGY STAR Label, recognizing it as "world class" in terms of energy efficiency for the last five consecutive years.

USAA Realty Company has a proven record of providing both tenants and building owners with first rate quality service and the added benefit of commitment to energy efficiency and the environment.  Consistent with these commitments, USAA Realty has a national as well as property level energy strategy and energy performance plan. As part of this strategy, a lighting retrofit, inclusive of the common areas, parking garage and tenant spaces was completed, replacing high energy T-12 bulbs to T-8 bulbs with electronic ballasts resulting in annual savings of $18,808 and with a payback of less than a year. In addition, the building's damaged window film was replaced with state of the art "highly reflective window tinting" for a total investment of $35,253. Annual savings are at $18,935, and with an incentive rebate from Southern California Edison in the amount of $14,223, the payback for the project was slightly over one year.

ABM Engineering and USAA Realty teams also recommended investing $38,600 to replace two antiquated boilers with new low-nox high efficiency and environmentally friendly units. An incentive rebate from the local utility company of $7,200 reduced the out-of pocket costs by over 18%. In addition, variable frequency drives (VFD's) were installed on 16 condenser fans, 4 supply fans, 4 economizer fans and the building's 2 booster water pumps. The Siemens 600 Energy Management System (EMS) was installed to provide optimum control to maximize tenant comfort and peak performance. Combined these projects have saved 429,000 kWh and $64,388 annually.

Several no cost measures have been implemented including adjusting of the boiler enable/disable and operating temperatures to conserve natural gas consumption without sacrificing tenant comfort. This has saved 4,455 therms and $5,079 annually. The Energy Management System cooling set points were adjusted according to indoor/outdoor climate rather than maintaining a rigid arbitrary set point saving $5,100 annually. Also, focus was on tenant hours of operation by implementing a Saturday A/C on demand schedule, wherein tenants are provided HVAC services only if they are occupying the building and thus saving significant "wasted energy" associated with cooling an empty or partially occupied building. Annual savings are $8,112.

USAA Realty Company strives to provide tenants and building owners the maximum tenant service and satisfaction that we believe they deserve. This in conjunction with the ENERGY STAR program has raised our awareness on how to improve the asset's value without sacrificing tenant comfort.