Competition for tenants who can pay top rents has grown so fierce that landlords are loading up their new buildings with goodies unheard of in years past when a swimming pool and laundry room were considered ample enticements for renters.
In a new downtown Los Angeles apartment complex, residents could be found on a recent hot Friday afternoon washing their pooches in a dog park that offers separate runs for large and small breeds. It’s just one of the tenant amenities on a sprawling 2-acre deck that unfolds like a garden courtyard eight stories above Figueroa Street at the towering Circa complex.
Owners Race to Add Luxury Amenities
Talaria at Burbank, the new apartment complex from Cusumano Real Estate Group, has won the Grand Award at the 2019 Gold Nugget Awards.
Cusumano and the design team of Nadia Geller Designs and VTBS Architects were honored in the category of Best Mixed Use Project. Talaria is Burbank’s first LEED Gold certified residential or mixed-use project.
Talaria Wins Architecture Award
Residences designed to make the everyday extraordinary.
Talaria at Burbank is a premium residential rental community to be built in the heart of the Burbank Media District, across the street from The Burbank Studios, Clear Channel and Warner Brothers, and a short distance from The Walt Disney Company and Providence St. Joseph Medical Center. The project is being proposed as the first LEED-certified green residential community in the City of Burbank. Talaria’s exclusive retail tenant is a Whole Foods Market open to all.
New project in Burbank: Talaria
In 2008, Burbank’s Mayor at the time, Dave Golonski, and BWP met with the Cusumano Real Estate Group to discuss ways to improve the sustainability of their operations. The Cusumano Group took the challenge of improving water and energy efficiency to heart.
On the energy front, they tuned-up nearly 500 residential air conditioners (A/C) through BWP’s Air Conditioning Tune-Up program.
A/C units that needed to be replace were upgraded with high efficiency options. They also replace thermostats, upgraded lighting, and installed high performance “cool roofing” material to reduce the solar heat that enters a building through the roof. In addition to saving both energy and dollars over the long-run, the Cusumano Group also received BWP rebates for their energy-saving actions.
The Cusumano Group has been even more proactive with water conservation. They have replaced over 1,300 old toilets with High Efficiency Toilets, the most water efficient toilets available. These toilets use just 1.28 gallons per flush compared to as many as seven gallons per flush of older toilets. The Cusumano Group also installed low-flow showerheads and low-flow kitchen and bathroom faucet aerators in over 1,200 Burbank apartments. “We are really surprised by how effective the conservation programs are and the amount of water we were able to save after implementation of our conservation plans,” Michael Cusumano, Vice President of the Cusumano Group stated.
Exactly how much water was saved? Water consumption was reduced by 30%!
Next up is reviewing their irrigation practices to find savings outdoors where half the water is used. The Cusumano Group recently reprogrammed their control timers to water every other day instead of daily. According to Michael Cusumano, “So far there’s been no impact on our plants from moving from daily watering.”
THANKS TO THE CUSUMANO GROUP FOR EMBRACING SUSTAINABILITY!
“Currents” Magazine, June 2009
Posted on November 25, 2009.