Sustainable Real Estate with Ashley Dancer

You worked as a Sustainable Real Estate Development Intern at Morgan Creek Ventures (Boulder, Colorado) this summer and are currently still working there part-time (congratulations!). Can you tell us a little bit about Morgan Creek Ventures?

Morgan Creek Ventures is a small (5 person business, including myself) sustainable real estate development and asset management company. Morgan Creek focuses on commercial mixed-use projects that seek to push the envelope of sustainable building practices and innovation. The company also considers and incorporates the social, environmental, and economic impacts created by each project. Our Boulder Commons project, currently under construction, will provide leasing space for retail, office, and a farm to table restaurant and will also serve as a gallery for local artists. The project is also set to be the first Net Zero commercial building in Colorado.

What types of projects did you work on as a Sustainable Real Estate Intern at a boutique real estate development firm?

I focused on three primary tasks: home automation research for an upcoming project, acquisitions research in Austin, TX, and a sophisticated financial model to quickly value projects.

Within the next two years, Morgan Creek will start construction on another mixed-use project in Boulder that will include luxury multi-family apartments with a home automation component. I researched home automation technology and appliances that could both enhance comfort and convenience for residents as well as significantly reduce their energy usage.

Morgan Creek Ventures prefers to operate in markets with strict restrictions on vertical development, an educated population, and growing creative industries. Austin, TX falls into this category. My work focused on finding a potential location where we could develop our first project in this new market.

The financial model took most of the summer to develop. The model is designed to make it easy to quickly value properties that the company might be interested in acquiring and allows the user to experiment with different development options to gauge financial outcomes under different circumstances.

How did your work help further Morgan Creek Ventures’ commitment to sustainability?

The research and interviews I conducted with local industry leaders in Home Automation Controls software focused directly on energy sustainability. Morgan Creek's goal for our next mixed-use project in Boulder is to create the first Net Zero commercial building that includes multi-family units. Besides a superior level of convenience for multi-family tenants, the inclusion of automated lighting, HVAC systems (Nest, for example), and non-intrusive load monitors will significantly reduce the energy use per tenant. This reduces the amount of energy our building would need to produce and also positions us closer to our Net Zero goal.


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