Our project is a six-level parking structure, totaling 300,000 square feet, with 20,000 square feet of tenant space on the ground floor level. The project is being designed with aggressive sustainability features including a large photovoltaic array, efficient lighting, and recycled content materials. The tenant space will consist of office, retail and a restaurant, but the spaces will not be fully designed until they are leased. The owner would like to achieve LEED certification prior to the build-out of the tenant space.Our question is, can we pursue LEED-NC certification based on a combination of credits that are achieved by the construction of the base building and by the tenant improvement lease agreement?We are aware of the Administrative CIR dated 5/17/2002, which provides guidance on how to handle LEED certification for projects with future build-out space. We propose to achieve a certain number of LEED credits as a result of the site features and building structure. We propose to achieve additional credits based on tenant lease requirements that incorporate the necessary LEED requirements. For example, we propose to achieve IEQ Credit 4.3 by requiring tenants to comply with a strict carpet specification in the lease agreement. No carpet will have been installed at the time of our LEED Application, but the lease requirements will be formally adopted and certified by the owner.Per the previous CIR, the parking structure building will require all the necessary infrastructure to support the tenant improvements stipulated in the lease agreement, such as piping of reclaimed water for sewage conveyance.Is this an acceptable approach for LEED-NC certification?
LEED-NC is designed for completed building projects. Future activities such as you describe are not applicable. Per previous CIRs, projects such as this that are going to apply for certification are required to create tenant fit-out guidelines. This arrangement is allowed in order that partial core and shell projects can have a certification avenue before LEED-CS is permanently launched. The items covered in the tenant guidelines will generally represent only a small portion of the building\'s design elements such as finishes and minor MEP, and should include specific performance goals, information, and resource leads, as well as required elements where applicable.If the project\'s current scope doesn\'t allow for enough points to be certified under LEED-NC, alternative options at this time may include:1) Wait for 100% completion of all fit-outs and incorporate documentation of these spaces into the rest of the building\'s application for an effective LEED-NC submittal.2) Explore the possibility of becoming a LEED Core & Shell pilot project.3) Use LEED-CI for the tenant spaces, when LEED-CI becomes available. Applicable internationally.