The Tower Companies “At a Glance”

  • 6 Million SF portfolio of office buildings, multi-family apartments, shopping centers, and other mixed-use facilities in the National Capital Area
  • 13 million SF in development
  • 30 acre Blair Master Plan Re-development in progress for vibrant urban living in Downtown Silver Spring, MD to include five acres of public parks
  • 100% Renewable Energy Commitment
  • 95% of Portfolio is US Green Building Council LEED® Certified
  • Fitwel Champion and Fitwel Advisory Council Member
  • 80% of Office Building Portfolio is ENERGY STAR® Certified
  • Over 20% energy and water use reduction since 2010 through commitment as a Department of Energy Better Buildings Partner
  • Climate Registered™ Gold Partner of The Climate Registry
  • 15% of Employees are LEED Accredited, Green Associates, or Fitwel Ambassadors
  • Over 2,000 hours of employee volunteering in communities that we serve

Click Here for Complete Listing of Company Awards

Tower Receives Green Lease Leader Recognition

Rockville, MD – May 2, 2018
Tower receives national recognition from the US Department of Energy’s Better Building Alliance and The Institute for Market Transformation for its high performance leasing practices that drive energy savings

A Pearl Comes to Silver Spring

Rockville, MD. – April 20, 2015
The Tower Companies broke ground today for The Pearl, a new high-rise residential building in downtown Silver Spring.

Stanford Grill to Open in Rockville

Rockville, MD – August 25, 2014
The Tower Companies and Lerner Enterprises proudly announce that Stanford Grill will open a new restaurant at 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard in Rockville, Maryland.

Tower Companies Named 2014 Green Lease Leader

Rockville, MD – May 6, 2014
The Tower Companies announces today that they have been named inaugural Green Lease Leaders by the Institute for Market Transformation and the US Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Alliance.

The Blairs Wins 2013 PMA Pace Award

Rockville, MD – October 24, 2013
The Tower Companies announced that The Blairs has won the 2013 Pace Awards for “Innovative Community” for the Lifestyle Program from Property Management Association (PMA”).

Tower Companies Wins 2011 CEL A-List Award

Rockville, MD – April 16, 2013
The Tower Companies announced that they are the winners of the CEL & Associates, Inc.’s National Commercial Real Estate Customer Service Award for Excellence, for their entire portfolio.

The Tower Companies’ Commercial Office Solar PV

This case study features The Tower Companies’ Blair Office Building and the increase in asset value the property has seen from the installation of a solar PV system, in addition to reduced operating expenses.

Blueprint for Green Real Estate

Building on the leading sustainability work that ULI Greenprint member organizations, including The Tower Companies, have been implementing, this Blueprint is for real estate owners and investors looking to develop or accelerate a sustainability program, and developers looking for ways to integrate sustainability into their overall development strategy.

High Rise – Low Carbon

This study’s benchmark was to find deep retrofit projects of existing high-rise office buildings that resulted in annual operational carbon emissions at or below the LL97’s 2030 carbon caps.

Smarter, Healthier, And Future-Proofed Building Technology – 1828 L Street

Smart building technology is often discussed as the next advance in building management systems (BMS) because it helps otherwise disparate building systems communicate in a way that optimizes whole building performance by automating the operation. The Tower Companies partnered with Prescriptive Data on a smart building technology pilot.

Blair House: Better Buildings Challenge Showcase Project (2019)

The Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge team worked with Tower to develop a showcase project to highlight the largest rooftop solar PV system on a mid-century multifamily building in Montgomery County, Maryland. The 122-kW installation reduces almost 10% of the overall operating costs at Blair House.

Architecture and Creativity: Examining the Impact of Maharishi Vastu on Workplace Creativity (2019)

A study published in the September issue of the scholarly Creativity Research Journal found increased creativity in employees who worked in a building designed according to Maharishi Vastu® architecture.  The study was conducted by Maharishi University of Management with participation from The Tower Companies and NIKA at 2000 Tower Oaks, a building developed by The Tower Companies in 2008 and recognized as the largest application of Vedic design in the world. NIKA moved into the building as a new office tenant in 2017.

Food Scrap Recycling at Multi-Family Properties (2018)

The Tower Companies partnered with the Montgomery County Division of Solid Waste Services to share the story of the composting program at The Blairs, which was recently expanded to The Pearl. This case study covers the history of the composting program, implementation, lessons learned, and recommendations for other multifamily properties to consider when launching their own programs. The Blairs residents have composted over 75,000 pounds to date.

The Pearl Becomes First Residential Building to Earn Fitwel Certification (2018)

The Tower Companies became a Fitwel Champion in early 2018, supporting their commitment to not only build and operate healthy commercial and residential properties, but to also inspire the real estate industry to prioritize health in the design and development process. Since achieving a Fitwel 2 Star Rating for The Pearl, The Tower Companies has started applying Fitwel to its commercial office properties in Maryland.

Building A Successful Green Lease: A Tool to Drive Smarter Building Investments (2017)

The Tower Companies, a Green Lease Leader since 2014, partnered with the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and the District of Columbia Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU) to develop this infographic that details how owners can incorporate sustainability best practices into the lease. Tower has executed over 1 million square feet of green leases in their commercial office portfolio. Tower’s Millennium Building in Washington, DC, which has green leases in over 95% of it leased space, serves as the example in this infographic.

Better Building Challenge Showcase: The Blair Office Building (2017)

The Blair Office Building is a multi-tenant commercial office building, built in 1963, with seven-stories above grade and one floor below grade. As part of their commitment o the Department of Energy’s Better Building Challenge, to reduce energy and water usage by 20% by 2020, The Tower Companies spent several years optimizing outdated systems and implementing a portfolio-wide strategic energy management program to establish benchmarks and goals, develop energy conservation measures (ECMs), and track progress through real-time data, analytics, training, and stakeholder engagement.

Tower Companies Discovers the Power of Energy Management (2017)

Via support from the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA)’s Commercial and Industrial Grant Program, The Tower Companies were able to focus on low-cost energy conservation measures at Blair Office Building.  The strategies implemented yielded astonishing results: a $44,000 retrofit turned into $50,000 in annual energy savings.

Increasing Tenant Engagement Through Plug Load Management (2016)

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), plug and process loads (PPLs) consume about one-third of energy in commercial buildings. Tower sought out expertise from the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), a DC-based nonprofit that promotes energy efficiency in buildings, and the Waypoint Building Group, a software and analytics provider for commercial real estate for solutions to reduce plug and process load energy in their multi-tenant office building, The Millennium Building.

The Clear Plath to Reduced Impact (2016)

Working with the DCSEU in 2015, Tower replaced more than 850 lamps and fixtures in the parking garage and below-grade back of house areas with high quality, ENERGY STAR and Design Lights Consortium (DLC) qualified lifetime warrantied LEDs.

Implementing Solar in Leased Office Buildings (2015)

The Tower Companies is a developer and owner of multi-tenant office, multifamily, retail, and mixed-use lifestyle properties in the National Capital Area. Tower is committed to being an environmental leader in the real estate industry and is continuously striving to find opportunities to engage with stakeholders on sustainability. To help achieve this goal and attract sustainability conscious tenants, the Tower Companies pursued the first solar photovoltaic (PV) installation on a large, class A office building in Washington, D.C.

Getting the Green Out: Key Finds and Recommendations from NRDC Workshops on Promoting Green Stormwater Infrastructure on Commercial Property (2015)

As a follow-up to The Green Edge, NRDC engaged with interested representatives of the commercial real estate sector to explore how property owners and developers think about GSI and conducted a workshop to develop and prioritize recommendations for implementing GSI at commercial development sites. GSI includes green roofs, rain gardens, cisterns, and other mechanisms that mimic natural hydrologic functions or that otherwise capture runoff on-site for productive use.  Our Director of Corporate Responsibility, Eugenia Gregorio, was a participant in the workshop that resulted in this report and guidance being published by NRDC.

Benchmarked: An Energy Case Study from Tower Companies (2015)

The Tower Companies started tracking building energy and water usage because it’s an opportunity to ensure efficient operations, reduce operating costs, compare our performance against similar buildings, and attract like-minded clients.   Many local jurisdictions have started to require annual benchmarking including Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, MD.  In an effort to encourage and educate other building owners to understand the process and benefits for energy reporting, Tower completed a short case study questionnaire in partnership with Montgomery County’s Department of the Environment.

Greenbuild Research Paper: Real Time Energy Management: Year 1 Results and Year 2 Persistence Results (2014)

Even the best commercial buildings have “operational stray” – sensors break, schedules are wrong for the season, and switches are set to manual. NRDC’s 2013 report on The Tower Companies’ Real-Time Energy Management project provided detail on how Tower worked with AtSite to identify and correct stray in three of Tower’s commercial office buildings, reduced the costs of the program while producing savings, determined other values for Tower, and established lessons learned for others exploring similar programs.  In this paper, we review certain key findings from the NRDC report and provide information from Tower and AtSite that offer a glimpse of the second year of the on-going program.  Preliminary information (collected by Tower and AtSite) suggests the energy savings seen in the first year appear to persist through year two using similar methods as described in the NRDC Report.  Based on Tower and AtSite reports of progress working with building teams, we provide an update to certain lessons learned, with an emphasis on engaging building staff.

Leveraging Green Leases to Reduce Energy and Water Use (2014)

The Tower Companies has been a dedicated partner of the DOE Better Buildings Challenge since 2013 and is committed to reducing energy and water 20% by 2020.   As part of this partnership, Tower worked with the DOE team to create a case study about the benefits of implementing a Green Lease as a tool to help other industry partners.

Case Study for D.C. Mayor’s Sustainability Awards (2013)

The Tower Companies is the first two-time winner of the 2013 and 2009 DC Mayor’s Environmental Excellence Award, which were both earned for demonstrating outstanding achievements and leadership in sustainable practices that support the city’s Sustainable DC initiative. This is a short case study highlighting Tower’s sustainability efforts and positive environmental impact.

Real-Time Energy Management: A Case Study of Three Large Commercial Office Buildings in Washington, D.C. (2013)

This case study examines the energy management initiative implemented by The Tower Companies,  in three large, multi-tenant office buildings it owns and operates in downtown Washington, D.C. This case study found that Tower’s real-time energy management initiative achieved a 13.2 percent reduction in energy use over three buildings, showing that substantial gains are possible when building owners operate their buildings with attention devoted to reducing wasted energy use.

Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard (2010)

A real estate developer assesses its ability to capture the benefits of investing in LEED Platinum, Vedic Design, and EnergyStar components in new buildings. The building at 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard in Rockville, Maryland is said to be the healthiest building in the National Capital Region. Does this matter? The case takes a deep look at many of the critical on-the-ground issues involved with innovative real estate development.

For more information and to obtain the case study, click here.

Urban Land Institute: Case Study on The Tower Building (2004)

With the development of the Tower Building, the Tower Companies sought to create a premier corporate office environment for the booming high-tech market. The Tower Building was planned as a cutting-edge office facility within a mixed-use, high-tech campus called Tower Oaks. But Tower Companies partner Jeffrey Abramson wanted the building to be more than that. With a strong personal interest in protecting the environment, Abramson saw an opportunity to develop a “learning building” that would embody environmentally responsible development principles and enhance worker productivity and well-being.

NRDC Case Study: Blair Towns LEED Platinum® (2004)

The Tower Companies certified the first LEED® multi-family apartments in the U.S. called Blair Towns. The Blair Towns is a 78-unit apartment community located at The Blairs in Silver Spring, Maryland and represents a “Smart Growth” approach to multi-family development.   This case study was completed by NRDC and highlights sustainability efforts made by Tower to achieve LEED Certification.