Greenscape Capital Group Inc.'s flagship project at the Denver International Airport will test whether the company's green approach to building parking lots attracts drivers and whether it's profitable in the long term after factoring in the higher upfront costs required to install more efficient infrastructure.
Greenscape CEO Bryan Slusarchuk said that because parking lots usually require 24-hour lighting, those costs can be greatly reduced by installing LED lights - as Greenscape did.
The company's 4,200-stall lot, which is branded Canopy Airport Parking, is powered by wind, solar and geothermal energy. It also includes electric vehicle charging stations.
Its asphalt was even made from recycled roofing shingles and the project has LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) gold certification.
Greenscape built the parking facility with an US$8.5 million bank loan and US$9 million in equity, raised largely through issuing warrants and from large shareholder loans and unrelated third parties.
Randall Hsu, a research associate with Fundamental Research Corp., said that while the company has taken on large debt to build the Denver lot, it's backstopped by the lot's $30 million to $40 million appraised value.
When asked why the parking lot industry has been a green laggard, Hsu said: "It's probably because the [green] costs are still substantial compared to building a standard parking lot at this point."
from Western Investor, January 2011
