Old, New Converge on Wyman Street as Hobbs Brook Hires Columbia Energy Team

WALTHAM—Columbia Construction Co. has been on an extended stay here already, originally at the behest of Hobbs Brook Management in building the sparkling 175-185 Wyman St. office park about to be occupied by Dassault Systemes after a 320,000-sf lease that rocked suburban Boston in late 2010. Columbia was then chosen to oversee Dassault’s massive fit out that is pursuing a LEED rating for interiors, hoping to match the same USGBC blessing the base structure already possesses.

Now, recently formed Columbia Energy has been designated to overhaul 333 Wyman St., Hobbs Brook’s outmoded 1980’s-era office building just doors down from the Dassault campus but light years away in terms of desirability, functionally and certainly on energy efficiency, underscored by the 85,000-sf property’s single-pane windows still peering out over Waltham’s presently frozen suburban landscape.

Such “low-hanging fruit” will be among the early deficiencies Columbia Energy confronts as the assignment commences, relays division chief Christopher McCarthy, heretofore Special Projects leader for North Reading-based Columbia, a third-generation firm where he has worked for 28 years. In a recent interview, McCarthy explains Columbia Energy was created last summer to coalesce existing skills in sustainable design and green construction, bringing together professionals and services in a one-stop platform. “That’s what clients need today,” McCarthy says, from commercial tenants in charge of their energy costs to sophisticated owners exemplified by Hobbs Brook, the firm a pioneer in such green technologies as the chilled water energy system for its flagship park at 404 Wyman St., a low-rise complex sandwiched between the new park and 333 Wyman St.

Hobbs Brook VP Donald Oldmixon says Columbia Energy’s performance at the award-winning 175-185 Wyman St. gave comfort that the nascent Columbia Energy division will achieve his firm’s exacting standards and goal to at least secure an Energy Star rating on the well-located 333 Wyman St. asset that was recently vacated, making the renovation prescient for a number of reasons. The design/build team will not have to navigate occupants, he observes, while competitive labor and materials also made Hobbs Brooks opt to forge ahead on the overhaul, space from which the firm is pitching through Wyman Street Advisors. “We’re pretty tight,” Oldmixon says in predicting a positive response to the upgraded three-story structure. “We’re making it ready for the 2020’s and beyond,” he says in hoping to secure new millennium companies.

Front and center to the redevelopment decision are the benefits promised from a sustainable building, concurs Oldmixon. Coming off the third worst winter he has encountered in a building management career that endured the Blizzard of 1978 and Mother Nature’s vicious 1996 campaign, Oldmixon says the need to address sustainability has never been more critical, leading to his firm’s decision to pursue the overhaul at 333 Wyman St. “You can get the results almost immediately,” he says. “It just makes sense.”

McCarthy declined to discuss specifics of the 333 Wyman St. plan, deferring those matters to the client, but he lists a range of services Columbia Energy will offer up properties, both physically and in such administrative matters as tracking rebates, tax credits and other programs available to help defray the costs of overhauling a property. The team can then audit the building, with McCarthy relaying there are eight main energy wasters that can be quickly evaluated, including clunky mechanical systems, inefficient lighting and outmoded plumbing. “Some people will want to do a few minor things, and there will be others (committed) to a more comprehensive solution,” says McCarthy. Dating to 1925, Columbia Construction embraced the green building trend early, he says, with the Columbia Energy operation a chance to formalize the expertise that already has taken on complex projects such as a geothermal heating system installed on behalf of a government agency. Columbia Construction has been doing LEED-rated work almost since the standard’s inception, and McCarthy says Columbia Energy “is the next step for us” in branding decades of sustainability knowledge and giving clients a seamless option. “We see it everywhere,” he says of the growing interest in green building best practices.