we have a training ceter

With LEED CI the project you certify is often a smaller part of a whole building.
For example, a company is moving into a renovated office on two floors of a 10 story building. Lets assume they are renting this space in the office building, and are not renovating the bathrooms and corridor around the elevator on these two floors.
The Building Gross Area includes all 10 floors of the whole building including ground floor lobby maintenance rooms, service areas, etc. The Project Gross Area only includes the renovated office area on the two floors that the company is renting. It would not include the common areas of those floors such as elevator, bathrooms, and maintenance closets, etc, because those were not renovated for this project.

Sometimes a CI project will occupy all floors of a building. In that case the Gross Project area would be almost as large as the Building Gross Area, but often there are common areas or maintenance areas that are not being renovated as part of the LEED project. These would not be part of the Gross Building Area, but not part of the Project Gross Area.
Does that explain the phrases for your situation?

Thanks for clarifying your situation. The Gross Building Area is the whole building: both renovated and non-renovated parts. The Gross Project Area is only the renovated parts.

If you are renovating the whole building, I'm wondering if LEED CI is the right rating system. Usually LEED NC is used for major renovations. Is there a reason you are using CI? When people have trouble deciding which rating system to use there are two resources that can help:

1) The LEED Rating System Selection Policy
http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=6667

2) LEED Online version 3
You can start to register a LEED project and not finish the registration, so it won't cost anything.
-- Click the "Register a New Project" button
-- At Step 2 of the Rating System Selection choose "I'm not sure which rating system to use."
-- When you get about 6 questions further, (after it asks about the number of projects, whether it is neighborhood, etc) you will reach a question about "Construction Scope."
-- If you have a "Major Renovation" of more than 60% of the building, this takes you to LEED NC after a few more questions.
What's a Major Renovation?
-- If you are renovating interior walls, ceilings, finishes, and just moving HVAC ducts and lighting, this is called an Alteration, and uses LEED CI.
-- If you are also making changes to the building roof, exterior, windows, structure, or replacing any major HVAC equipment such as boiler, chiller, heaters, etc, than it is a Major Renovation and uses NC. (These terms are all defined in the Glossary of the MPR Supplemental Guidance.)

Take a look at those resources and post back here if you hav any more questions.

Does anyone know if property records require proof of type of renovation? We are looking into a particular property that seems to meet qualifications, but have yet to track down paper work(Communication with current owners is a whole ordeal, so clarity there may answer all questions).
The clarification on "major innovation" above is very helpful. Thanks.

Ola, there are some situations where either CI or NC could be used, such as when you are close to the definition of a Major Renovation. It's not a strict rule that your project can only qualify for one rating system. You have the flexibility to decide which one makes the most sense here. If the building is going to be more than half occupied during the work, it sounds like CI may be a better choice.
If you don't have cut sheets, you will need some kind of official letter from the product manufacturer or supplier to verify the % of recycled content, VOC emissions, etc. These and other supporting documents do need to be in English for the GBCI reviewers. You can try to submit photos without dates, but I don't know how strict the review will be.

Markus,
I haven't seen projects being asked for proof of renovation type. Often there are some permit documents or construction drawings that define the limits of the work being done, so that has usually been enough.