News

  • Montgomery County passes bill requiring all-electric building code

    Montgomery County passes bill requiring all-electric building code

    The Montgomery County Council unanimously passed legislation requiring the county executive to issue all-electric building standards for new construction by December 31, 2026. The council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee recommended approval with amendments directed at several points important to NAIOP members. The amended version of the bill includes…

  • Industrial outdoor storage settles into sustainable growth pattern

    Industrial outdoor storage settles into sustainable growth pattern

    On an 80-acre site in Cecil County, the first cars in a planned delivery of 10,000 vehicles have started arriving at a newly created industrial outdoor storage (IOS) facility. Developed by Greenspring Realty Partners, the Insurance Auto Auctions facility demonstrates both the continued high demand for IOS space in Maryland…

  • Industry Roundtable: Commercial office leasing

    Industry Roundtable: Commercial office leasing

    Developers, building owners and brokers alike have been nervously awaiting the potential fallout and impact on future leasing activities as employees finally return to traditional and more normalized workplaces in a post-pandemic world, and companies reassess their future space needs. Early reports have been promising as remote-only and hybrid work…

  • State policy makers present daunting path to 2031 decarbonization goal

    State policy makers present daunting path to 2031 decarbonization goal

    Faced with an ambitious new schedule for reducing Maryland’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, leaders across multiple industries are warning that even aggressive implementation plans – which would dramatically decarbonize transportation, buildings and the electric grid – will fail to meet the state’s 2031 GHG goal. Previously, Maryland was working towards…

  • Building health: How the right office can help medical practices thrive

    Building health: How the right office can help medical practices thrive

    Across from a retail center in Columbia, Goodier Properties has found a vibrant new role for a cluster of suburban office buildings. This summer, Goodier purchased a six-building, 250,000-square-foot property with a 35 percent vacancy rate on Old Dobbin Lane and embarked on a plan to transform it into a…

  • Energy benchmarking in buildings key to complying with new climate bill

    Energy benchmarking in buildings key to complying with new climate bill

    Tracking energy usage, establishing benchmark Energy Star scores and using that data to identify necessary energy equipment changes and retrofits will become an increasingly important activity for real estate owners as Maryland implements the Climate Solutions Now Act. Passed by the General Assembly in 2022, the act requires the state…

  • Stakeholder meetings to focus on building energy performance standard

    Stakeholder meetings to focus on building energy performance standard

    The Maryland Department of Environment (MDE) has scheduled a series of stakeholder meetings related to the development of regulations to implement a state-wide building energy performance standard. At this point, MDE interprets the directive in Senate Bill 528 to require that regulations apply to both energy use and direct emissions.

  • Developers turn to Proptech to optimize management and operations

    Developers turn to Proptech to optimize management and operations

    Property technology, generally known as Proptech, has emerged as an often-used tool among commercial real estate developers and property management companies to harness data and intelligence to simplify transactions, assist with marketing and leasing, and optimize asset management functions and operations. Its use ranges from gathering real-time feedback from tenants…

  • Howard County adopts heightened climate goals

    Howard County adopts heightened climate goals

    America’s greenest county is raising the bar on its own sustainability goals. On the heels of earning the first LEED Platinum certification in the country under the U.S. Green Building Council’s version 4.1 States and Communities Program, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball launched new initiatives in October to dramatically lower…

  • DC commuter survey shows spike in telework, drop in transit use

    DC commuter survey shows spike in telework, drop in transit use

    The first post-pandemic survey of D.C. area commuters documents the explosion in telework and sharp drop in transit usage since the onset of COVID-19. According to the survey conducted by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, three-quarters of commuters now telework three or more days a week – up from…