A Needham office building that generates more energy than it uses was featured Monday, July 20, by the Urban Land Institute as a national model for net-zero commercial retrofits.

BXP's 140 Kendrick Street Building A, a 106,000-square-foot property on the Route 128 corridor near Cutler Park, completed a $10 million retrofit in July 2023 that made it the first large-scale net-zero office repositioning in Massachusetts, according to a ULI deal profile. Wellington Management, which leased the building in 2021, partnered with BXP on the project and chose the most ambitious of three retrofit scenarios the developer presented.

How the retrofit works

The overhaul replaced gas-fired systems with fully electric variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heat pumps, added spray foam insulation to the roof and walls, and installed more than 1.4 megawatts of on-site solar. That includes a 142-kilowatt rooftop array and a 1,238-kilowatt solar canopy over the parking garage, paired with 680 kilowatt-hours of battery storage, according to solar developer Sunwealth.

The results: a 40 percent reduction in energy use intensity and recovery of 90 percent of the building's heat, per the ULI deal profile. Under typical conditions, Building A generates more renewable energy on-site than it consumes, and BXP says surplus power already helps offset energy use in other buildings on the 440,000-square-foot campus.

Dollars and community benefit

Sunwealth delivered the solar canopy through a power purchase agreement with BXP, meaning no upfront capital cost for the solar installation. The system is projected to produce over 1.4 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually and save more than $1.1 million over its lifetime, according to Sunwealth. Construction generated nearly 48 job-years.

Half of the solar energy credits from the parking canopy go to local low-income residents at a 20 percent discount. As of a Sunwealth case study published in late 2024, 66 low-income subscribers had enrolled, with estimated annual savings of $29,105.

Recognition

Building A earned LEED V4 Core and Shell Gold certification in 2024 and was the first commercial office project in the MassSave Path 1 Net Zero program. It also received the inaugural 2024 Nareit Sustainability Impact Award and the 2023 Built Environment Plus People's Choice Award.

The campus sits within Needham's N2 Innovation District. BXP is pursuing LEED Zero Carbon certification for the building, according to the ULI deal profile. Stantec's Boston office served as architect on the retrofit.