The LEED-Platinum building hopes to be the greenest office building in the nation, but at a price – construction costs are estimated at $280 per-square-foot, double the typical construction cost in Denver, according to the article.

No detail is too small, though, when it comes to saving energy. The 750 employees will use laptops, because personal computers are too big of energy hogs. Even the phones are green, using only 2.8 kilowatt-hours of electricity monthly, compared with 10.8 kilowatt-hours for a standard model.

The design-build team includes Denver-based RNL, Haselden Construction LLC of Centennial, and Stantec Consulting. Denver-based RavenBrick LLC is providing a reflective film it developed, which will be used on some windows that allows the glass to darken as it gets warmer outside,  reflecting the sun’s heat form the building, but still allowing daylight to provide natural lighting for the employees.

Truly a building of the future.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

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Home closings nationally are up 10.1 percent from October and a whopping 23.5 percent from October 2008, according to the National Association of Realtors. By comparison, home closings were down 7.6 percent in the Denver area from a year earlier and were up only 2.9 percent from September.

But I would consider this a bullish sign, if I were either looking to buy a home, sell a home, or if I were in the business of selling homes.

The reason is mathematical.

Everything reverts to the mean. That is, whether you are talking about stocks or housing, things have a way of settling down to whatever is  “normal” for that market, despite short-term spikes up or down.

What I think that is going to mean (no pun intended)  is that home sales are going to pick up in Denver and fall nationally.

And don’t forget, Denver’s economy often is counter-cyclical to the national economy.  That  economic-sword cuts both ways – we’re often down when the nation is up, and vice versa.

Another reason to bet on Denver’s housing market recovery is that it and Colorado have one of the best “balanced energy economies” of traditional and  alternative energy companies in the nation, as Tom Clark, of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., points out. The  Denver-area should become a magnet for high-paying jobs in the alternative energy sector,  especially since the Golden-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the nation’s premier renewable energy research outfit,  is in our backyard.

Also, mortgage rates remain near their historical lows, if you have the credit and work history to qualify. That mortgage rate window won’t stay open forever.

Still, there are storm clouds dampening Denver’s housing market. A declining workforce even as unemployment rates drop, is not encouraging. The area, and much of the country, is bracing for another wave of foreclosures due to more people losing their jobs. And lenders may have thousands of foreclosed homes waiting in the wings that have not yet been put on the market,  creating a shadow market, as I reported earlier.

Kentwood Co.  broker Tom Cryer says this reminds him of 1989, a prime time in Denver to find bargain-basement-priced homes. He thinks people who don’t buy today, will wish they had by 2012, when he thinks a  Denver-area housing recovery will be well on its way.

I don’t think I would bet against him.

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At the time, I thought it could long-term set the stage for creating even more green jobs in the Denver area.

I was wrong.

It’s already happening.

“I just came from there, and deals are going on in the hallways right now,” Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., told me this morning.

“And as I was walking out, I was handed five business cards from people who are interested in doing business here,” added Clark, who was instrumental in helping to convince NREL to hold the forum in Denver for the third consecutive years.

Executives and leaders in solar, energy storage, wind, and nanotechnology  are among the speakers, in addition to financial wizards who discuss how to get funding. Experts from household names such as Toyota and Cisco, also are on panels at the forum that started at 7 a.m. on Tuesday and ends at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday.  Sessions run into the evening. My initial blog has a link to the agenda.

“Anyone who is anyone in the clean-industry cluster is speaking,” Clark said. “I just heard a guy speaking about nanotechnology that was simply fascinating. Nanotechnology is going to allow us to paint our homes so the paint on the outside becomes solar panels.”

Clark said this forum shows the wisdom of his group to target clusters several years ago, instead of taking a shot-gun approach and go after whatever industry is hot, as economic development agencies had traditionally approached recruiting businesses.

Currently, his group is looking with about 15 companies – including a few done deals such as Vestas – that are in the pipeline, not pie-in-the-sky prospects.

Together, these companies would create 15,000 primary jobs over the next two years.

“When you use the multiplier and spin-off jobs, we’re talking about 40,000 jobs,” Clark said. “About half of them are in the clean-energy field, with the others in clusters such as IT, aerospace,  bio-science and in traditional energy, such as oil and gas.”

He said most of the clean-energy jobs pay between $40l,000 and $65,000 annually.

“I think these jobs will give the housing market a boost,” Clark said. “And it probably will keep some people from losing their homes to foreclosures.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

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Smith, long a proponent of sustainable living, this year has sold a number of homes to people who have moved to Golden to take high-paying jobs in clean-energy fields.

But in one case, it truly hit home – literally.

“I have two homes, and I leased one of them to a guy who has relocated from Charlottesville, Va., to take a high-paying job at NREL (the National Renewable Energy Laboratory),” Smith, the owner of Golden Real Estate Inc. told me today.

“Hopefully, he will buy it,” Smith added. “He seems to really like living there.”

Smith said that Golden may be getting more of its lion-share of jobs because of its proximity to NREL.

“I think we’re seeing more of those jobs in Jeffco than elsewhere in the metro area,” Smith said.

Not only is it close to NREL and companies that deal with NREL, but it has the type of lifestyle that many people associate with Colorado, he said. NREL, as I blogged earlier, is holding a major conference on clean-energy this week in downtown Denver. And in another blog, I reported on how fast-growing the clean-energy sector

“You can be riding your bike up Lookout Mountain practically from your backyard,” Smith said. “I sold a foreclosure in Commerce City for about $180,000. That house would have cost $500,000 in Golden. But you wouldn’t be able to look out your window in Commerce City and see the view I’m looking at right now.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

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Clark pointed to  mjor expansions by clean energy companies such as Vestas Wind Systems, SMA Solar Technology AG, Ascent Solar, Abound Solar, and many others are fueling Colorado’s New Energy Economy growth, an economic development platform driven by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter.

“Over the past few years, we’ve established a clean-energy template that is creating thousands of new jobs, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and generating innovative technologies for the future,” according to  Ritter. “The New Energy Economy in Colorado can serve as a pathway for all of America that will lead to greater economic, energy, and environmental security.”

According to a 2009 report by The Pew Charitable Trusts, jobs in Colorado’s clean energy sector grew more than twice as fast as overall jobs from 1998 to 2007.

In addition to new job creation, growth in the state’s clean energy sector brought in more than $600 million in private capital investment to Colorado from 2006 to 2008.  And, for every $100 million in venture capital invested in the clean energy sector, 2,700 direct new jobs are created.

Almost three dozen clean-energy companies, , both local and national, are taking center stage at a forum being sponsored this week at the Hyatt Regency Denver hotel by the Golden-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory. For more information on the forum, check my earlier blog.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

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