How Commercial Property Owners Can Cut Costs and Increase Asset Value

Robert Politzer (00:00)
what I like to say is we are essentially with AssetMax, we are gold miners, Scott. We are mining the gold of inefficiency in buildings.

And so few property owners understand the gold mine they’re sitting under because they don’t see it. And and the people they bring to identify to them don’t even know understand half of where the gold resides, right? So ⁓ we provide our audit, and then what we’ve all we’ve also learned is that our audit can take up to 90 days. During that time, we want to get to a win, a quick first.

win. We found that to be critically important. That’s how you build that’s how you build ⁓ trust with clients is show me the money.

Scott Bursey (02:16)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey And today we’re pleased to have Robert Politzer in the studio. Robert is the force behind GreenStreet Global. He’s a pioneer who has served as New York City’s first ever green building contractor. He’s the author of the Green Business Survivor’s Guide and the architect of the AssetMax platform, which is revolutionizing how we optimize building performance and manage capital.

In commercial real estate, we’re going to dig into how tech and financing are changing the game for asset value. Robert, welcome to the show.

Robert Politzer (02:54)
Thanks, Scott. It’s great to be here with you.

Scott Bursey (02:55)
It is just awesome having you here and to help our listeners get up to speed. Please give us the front row seat on how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Robert Politzer (03:05)
⁓ well, I was an environmental engineer in New York City. I was ⁓ I was also an adjunct professor at NYU and ⁓ not really satisfied working with this ⁓ environmental engineering firm. So met two other people and started my first foray into entrepreneurship. This is going way back to nineteen ninety-four. ⁓ spent

a couple of years with these with these colleagues, ⁓ didn’t really work out, which is true of you know most startups, but you know, got my first taste of that. And ⁓ so I decided to move forward on my own and ⁓ started doing I started a new company and I was doing environmental reme remediation work in New York City, asbestos abatement, mold abatement, because that’s what I was doing with the environ the engineering firm. And we got a a a ⁓

An opportunity with a very exotic, very wealthy client downtown who had a a loft in Soho on GreenStreet, interestingly enough. And he he wanted to do a renovation and he wanted to do it green. And that was sort of the the introduction for me about of the notion of green building. And ⁓ given who I am, I’ve got a

you know, mutual passions with with environmentalism and with real estate. So bringing those two together kind of made sense for me. So we we worked on this project. that was actually when I when I parted company with my former partners. We we were working under the name Healthy Home Environmental. And so trying to come up with a new name, I was I was it at one night I was kind of up, I couldn’t quite get to sleep, and then bang, ⁓

The the name GreenStreet came to me. ⁓ you know, it was it was the the location we were working on. I love the name. So I moved forward with with you know a new incorporation for for which was GreenStreet construction, and ⁓ stopped doing the environmental remediation, started doing focusing on on the ⁓ green renovations is essentially what it was. It was very early, it was very, you know, before there was the lead program, before

There was one little green building supply company in all of New York City at the time. ⁓ so it was really pioneering and ⁓ which was good and bad because you know, ⁓ you know, they say it’s isn’t easy being green. It also isn’t easy, green in in, you know, in in multiple ways. Like green ⁓ can also mean, you know, ⁓ not very experienced, inexperienced, right? And and and new.

So yeah, I had a long, a long learning curve, both to learn ⁓ more deeper about the construction field, the business of construction, but on top of it was the whole layer of green building. And that’s that in and of itself is an entirely, you know, add additional ⁓ study. And ⁓ so ⁓ it was ⁓ it was interesting, it was fascinating. We did some really we we did the penthouse at one fifth avenue.

Which was ⁓ a green renovation that was a really high-level project. It was the with the founder of Aveda. We did some other high-level projects. I got lead accredited in early 2001. And ⁓ so we did end up doing six lead certified projects, including the Mark Twain House Education and Visitor Center, was the first lead certified green building certified museum in the country. So we got involved in some real leading edge projects. We were always in

sort of in that leading edge position. We did the first green townhouse project in Brooklyn in in New York City in Brooklyn. We did the first ⁓ grid tide solar project in New York City. we did the first ⁓ green certified lead certified restaurant project in New York City and so over time ⁓ we we started to grow from ⁓ a residential focus to more of a commercial focus

That’s when I started to develop a green building upgrade program for commercial properties. I was walking into commercial properties in New York City, of which there are thousands. And in every building, I’d look around and I’d see all kinds of opportunities to upgrade the performance, the environmental and energy, and financial performance of the buildings. So I started developing this upgrade program and ⁓ learned that.

one of the big problems for for green building and ⁓ and for high performance buildings is that a lot of vendors have really amazing products and services that will save on operating costs, but it oftentimes has a higher first cost. It costs more initially, it saves you money on your operating costs. Most owners would have nothing to do with that. If it was a higher first cost, they weren’t interested.

And and I came to understand also that in the commercial real estate field, ⁓ depending on the industry, there’s oftentimes the capital people don’t even talk to the operational people. So you get this, there’s this fundamental problem of the capital people want that want to limit the first cost. The operational people want the highest performance project you can build, right? Those oftentimes clash.

So I set about addressing the first cost problem, and the way I did that was with a cost savings program. So we now have an extraordinary, unique, ⁓ comprehensive cost savings program with three different partners. One partner focuses on all the utility-related costs. So they’ll audit the utility costs, they look for over-billing, billing errors, they find them 80% of the time. When they find they pay for their own people, so there’s no upfront cost to the client, they pay their auditors.

When they find savings, they split the savings with the client 50-50. Okay. So then we have another partner that we added to them, which does all works on all the operational expenses. So the operating business in the building. They have over 50 different cost centers that they look at. They do this all the time, they’re international, same model. They pay their auditors to do the audits. When they find savings, they split the savings, they almost always find savings.

So we brought those two those two parties to partners together in our in our AssetMax audit. And then we’ve added a third partner, which is a nationwide energy services company. They will audit the water and energy consuming equipment in the building. So our audit that is done with no upfront costs is extraordinarily valuable. What and what I like to say is we are essentially with AssetMax, we are gold miners, Scott. We are mining the gold of inefficiency in buildings.

And so few property owners understand the gold mine they’re sitting under because they don’t see it. And and the people they bring to identify to them don’t even know understand half of where the gold resides, right? So ⁓ we provide our audit, and then what we’ve all we’ve also learned is that our audit can take up to 90 days. During that time, we want to get to a win, a quick first.

win. We found that to be critically important. That’s how you build that’s how you build ⁓ trust with clients is show me the money.

So what we do is now we get started with our audit, but then we’ve got three easy wins that we will that we will implement. The first of which is a bolt-on payroll program. this is a program that that was bought by a large ⁓ venture firm

very a very well-known venture firm. ⁓ and this program is is ⁓ is very simple, no cost to the client. It will save the client up to $995 per W-2 employee per year indefinitely. It will also provide about three to four percent in savings for the employees. So the client gets to essentially give a raise to their employees, right? And so, you know, ⁓ we have

We have one ⁓ hotel client, they have ⁓ they have over a hundred ⁓ over a hundred W-2 employees. So that’s over a hundred thousand dollars of savings per year with no out-of-pocket cost.

And that’s just the beginning. That’s our first easy win. Then we’ve got a water valve, Scott. You’ll love this. This water valve, what it does is that is that when water comes in from the utility, it’s filled with air bubbles. So we literally

We pay for both water and air when we pay our water bill. What this valve does, it’s a whole building valve. It will essentially squeeze out the air bubbles before the water hits the meter. So it lowers the cost of water by 20 to 25%. Once it’s installed, it’s an hour to install. We can finance 100% of the costs. Once it’s installed, it’s the gift that keeps giving. Year after month after month after month. So long as it’s installed, it’s going to be saving.

On water. So that’s a second easy win. Our third easy win is a nanotechnology window membrane that can get installed easy, about 15 minutes, gets installed in the interior of the window, barely ⁓ impacts visibility, lowers heating and cooling costs by 30 to 40 percent. So those are our easy wins that we can finance completely.

While we’re getting our audit done, so we’re already saving the client money, then we get our audit done, that’s when we find the gold. And that’s when we’re gonna implement all those cost savings. But Scott, it gets even better. That’s just our first phase of our program. Because after we’ve done all that cost savings, that’s when we work on the building. That’s what we’ve been doing for the last 28 years, is construction project management. But then we bring in our vendors, our vendor partners who have you know their ⁓ these leading edge solutions.

to optimize the performance of the building. So we’re gonna then we’re gonna be lowering the operating costs even further when we work on the building. So every step of our program adds value. It’s all about value add. It’s all about maximizing asset value, step by step.

Scott Bursey (14:35)
And Robert, I must say that journey is pure gold. You know what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to bridge the gap between heavy duty, hands-on construction and high-level tech solutions to solve real commercial real estate headaches. On that note, we’re curious to know as a builder turned tech founder, what do you identify as the greatest strength of the AssetMax platform for a commercial owner?

Robert Politzer (15:02)
Greatest strength, I would I would say there are a number of strengths to the program, starting with the cost solutions, the cost saving solutions. Nobody, I I’ve never met another company that does that. I’ve met plenty of energy efficiency companies, right? There’s a lot of those out there. ⁓ I’ve met, you know, energy auditors, right? and ⁓ they’re all just, you know, they’re focused on the building.

Many of them don’t know how to find the money they you know to to for the owner. So like in the case of an auditor, like the worst thing, the the worst first step for a commercial building owner is to hire an energy auditor. Because what’s gonna happen is they’re gonna get they’re gonna go and they’ll they’ll do a they’ll do their audit, they’ll identify a lot of the opportunities for savings, ⁓ they’ll hand over a you know report to the owner.

And then you know they get paid and they’re and they’re gone. And then the owner’s got this report. Now, what the hell does the owner do with the report? How does the owner pay for the upgrades that are recommended in the report? Right? Who’s gonna do the the project man the construction project management? You know, the engineering, the whole, you know, it’s it’s an entire large under undertaking, excuse me. So ⁓

And then if you go down that conventional route, it’s going to be very expensive. Right. So after you do your audit, what you might do is ne second mistake, you call up your a mechanical engineering firm, right? I got this audit. I want you to, you know, give me a proposal to do the engineering for what they’re saying. Okay. So you paid the energy auditor, that’s out of pocket. Now you’re paying the engineer. You can’t finance the cost of the engineer. You’re out of pocket for them. You’re probably out of pocket fifty to a hundred thousand dollars by this time.

So the engineer gives you this proposal. Great. They’re going to engineer the HVAC upgrade and right and and that’s that’s great. and ⁓ who’s gonna pay for what they’re recommending? How are you gonna pay for that? some people are are blessed, and they’ve got a lot of, you know, they got hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars sitting around. Not many, not even big clients, but some do. Most clients need to fund

you know, a a an upgrade project. ⁓ and so that’s another problem. More ⁓ in a in a third problem, going down the conventional route, the engineering firm, what they wanna, you know, they usually they want to work with the HVAC technology, right? That’s where the that’s where the fun is, that’s where the money is, you know, and and and so they’re gonna design a new HVAC system, oftentimes just based on code, right? So now ⁓ how

We do it differently, is we would start with the installation of this window membrane, which is going to substantially lower heat loss and heat gain into the building. When we do that, when we get around to the HVAC work with our engineers, we’re going to design a much more smaller and much more efficient system because there’s less heat load that has to be moved, right? So because we do it holistically, we’re going to come up with a much more efficient.

much lower operating ⁓ a cost of operation much lower than a conventional approach. Now the third the other big bad move is to call in your HVAC contractor. Because what do they want to do? They want to sell you as much tonnage, as large an HVAC system as they can. They’re not going to be selling you efficiency, right? So now take so how we position ourselves then with AssetMax is essentially as the joint venture partner.

Like we we get paid through the shared savings, the savings that we achieve, right? The more savings, the better for us, the better for our client, right? So we are obviously then, we we have no interest in bringing in some HVAC, some engineer or some HVAC contractor who’s gonna who’s gonna design and build the biggest HVAC system they can. We’re gonna be going the opposite direction. How do we how do we, you know, shrink the size of the equipment?

for that efficiency that was so that we all win. So ⁓ a little bit of a long winded ⁓ explanation of ⁓ the question you asked.

Scott Bursey (19:53)
Yes, the core strengths of AssetMax. Thank you so much for highlighting that. And that is incredible practical advice. Robert, our pros would love to hear your take on this. Where do you see the biggest internal resistance from commercial owners when they are first looking at adopting new climate tech?

Robert Politzer (20:11)
Well, first of all, I would say in my experience, most commercial building owners think that believe that climate is a hoax. They think this whole climate change thing is a hoax. That’s the biggest problem. if they’re not in markets where there are mandates. I’m a developer also. We have the same hat. ⁓

We have the same interests. We are all about optimizing, maximizing asset value, right? Now, here’s the interesting thing though. In 2026, especially if you are in New York, in Boston, in Maryland, in Illinois, in California, there are there are states and localities that have low carbon mandates. So if you’re in those areas, you have to be lowering your carbon emissions, right?

But what I would argue is this: if you want to maximize the asset value of your commercial real estate, and I don’t care where it is.

You have to address excess carbon emissions. If it doesn’t come back to bite you right now, it is going to eventually, eventually it’s going to lower the asset value of your building. So let me give you an analogy. When I first came to New York in the 1980s, ⁓ that was when ⁓ regulations were were ⁓ signed for ⁓ asbestos. Okay.

So a lot of the old buildings had asbestos. Well, a lot of those old buildings were owned by, you know, families, two, three, four generations, right? And they never addressed asbestos, wasn’t even a they didn’t even think about it, right? So all of a sudden, you know, but many of the old buildings had a lot of asbestos, especially around you know, pipe insul for pipe insulation or boiler insulation. So these these regulations were passed, and all of a sudden, these building owners found out that they have a liability.

Why? Because the new old new potential buyers are going to say, are going to, in their diligence, they’re going to find out that you got asbestos. They’re to say, listen, ⁓ we estimate it’s going to cost us a half million dollars to take care to abate that asbestos. So we’re going to lower our offer to you by $500,000. That’s what’s going to start happening with commercial buildings that have excess carbon emissions. It’s going to start to be a greater and greater liability, especially if you’re in a place like New York City that has a law that requires it.

So if you wanna maximize your asset value, you have to address carbon. In our case, though, the beauty of our program, the decarbonization comes as a free added component because when we make the building more efficient, we lower the use of fossil fuels, which is it’s which is how you decarbonize decarbonize a building.

Scott Bursey (22:55)
Thank you for that, Robert. And it’s fascinating to consider the market trajectory. Where do you see the biggest hidden opportunity for GreenStreet Global to scale its impact right now?

Robert Politzer (23:05)
We ⁓ we have a ⁓ really stronger and stronger target on hotels. ⁓ hotels, first of all, you know, green, energy efficient, healthy, these are features that are important in hotels, probably more important than any other vertical outside of maybe hospitals and nursing homes, right? and a lot of a lot of ⁓ clients, a lot of ⁓ hotel clients will

Will actually pay more for hotels that have better indoor air quality, that you know, they’re they’re certified green hotels, you know. So in hotels, there is a more of a recognition of the added value of higher performing green hotels. And hotels have huge operating, huge ⁓ operating expenses, ⁓ you know, large ⁓ amount of ⁓ carbon emissions typically.

Hotels are are a particularly strong focus on our part, but ⁓ you know we’re we’re developing AssetMax to be a it’ll be a SaaS platform so that other our decarbonization teams around the world will be able to use the platform to simplify streamlining and automate their program, which will help tremendously, along with the the vendors that we’ll be able to introduce to them.

So it’s the idea is that we want to take this globally and ⁓ to help teams around the world to lower carbon emissions in commercial buildings, because it’s a problem all over the world, not just in the United States.

Scott Bursey (24:40)
Thank you for highlighting that. And wondering, what do you view as the most significant external threat to the adoption of green technologies in commercial real estate today?

Robert Politzer (24:51)
⁓ it’s it’s that a lot of these technologies are sold piecemeal. So for example, ⁓ the the window membrane. So it’s it’s got a tremendous benefit to it. ⁓ but the real real value is when you include that wind window membrane as part of the overall building upgrade.

When when it’s going to help you to substantially lower your first cost of your HRAC equipment, lower your operating expenses over time. So when you do things piecemeal, like the this is the way that this very fragmented marketplace typically works, a lot of the highest ⁓ the highest value ⁓ upgrade it gets lost. You you lose a lot of the opportunities that would be available had you done the project as a more of a holistic program.

That we utilize with AssetMax.

Scott Bursey (25:42)
Appreciate you highlighting that. Thank you for that, Robert. And how has your AssetMax platform changed the way you personally view capital allocation in building management?

Robert Politzer (25:54)
Well, ⁓ the first way that I view it is that it is a it’s the most I would say it’s the most powerful tool that I’ve ever encountered for optimizing asset value and maximizing asset value. And and you know, listen, as a developer myself, I used a lot of the conventional strategies like converting commercial to residential space, you know, ⁓ doing some

basic ⁓ you know renovations and aesthetic upgrades, you know, adding some additional ⁓ other components ⁓ you know to ⁓ increase the value of the building, which is what most commercial building owners do. But I over time earlier in my in my career didn’t understand the power of of an AssetMax like program to be mining all of the inefficiencies and to and to really

you know, get down into all all the gold where all the gold resides.

Scott Bursey (26:50)
I love that approach to building trust and showing value really. And Robert, please fill us in on what does your professional network look like right now?

Robert Politzer (26:59)
We have a a large number of channel partners for for AssetMax. We’ve got our our board of advisors who are all high level professionals. and our co-founder has a huge network. ⁓ we’ve got a very, very strong, especially in New York, because I’ve been here for twenty-eight years, you know, and in this region, we’ve got a very strong ⁓ commercial network.

of of channel partners, of vendor partners. And ⁓ so and then yeah, the with our our the Galway relationship, that’s really been great. We’ve really expanded our network quite a bit.

Scott Bursey (27:41)
And I can tell that’s what keeps you ahead of the curve. Thank you for sharing that. And digging deep, Pier, if you could tell a commercial building owner one thing that would instantly increase their asset value, what would it be?

Robert Politzer (27:53)
First, to understand that energy efficiency is where you always want to begin. So what you don’t want to do is to, for example, install solar on the roof of a building that is highly inefficient. So that a building that has old electrical appliances and old lighting, right? You’re, you know, you’re you’re thwarting the benefits that the solar would do. So always begin.

With energy efficiency. But even then, even before energy efficiency, begin with cost savings. Cause that’s where there’s you know, it’s all available. And not only do we are there these cost saving solutions, but there are also a lot of utility rebate programs. There are tax, there are tax benefits for doing these. So start with the money, start with, you know, find, identify all of the opportunities. Start with the simplest cost saving solutions you can.

get some traction and then start building from there.

Scott Bursey (28:51)
Thank you for sharing that with the pros, Robert. And Robert, you have shared a tremendous amount of value with us today. But is there any additional golden nuggets you could leave with our pros?

Robert Politzer (29:02)
Yes. So we are really in the early stages of a clean technology revolution. It’s happening all over the world. There are new vendors coming online all the time. So the other thing is, and this is what I’m very proud of, we have a very long-term view. We are, you know, we want to be partnering with our clients for for many years to come. And the value to them is this. Over the last two or three months, I have been introduced to three different really amazing new vendor partners, right?

We are going to be introduced to new vendor partners for years to come. When you when you do you work with us the first time, you’re, you know, you are a client for life. So when we get new amazing ⁓ technologies and processes and programs that will make your building even more efficient, we will be bringing that to our clients over time. So it’s not just about it’s getting your building to a high level here and then over time maintaining or even improving on that level of performance.

So it’s a long term it’s not just a one and done, it’s a long term proposition.

Scott Bursey (30:02)
That’s huge. And Robert, for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane, or collaborate with you on future deals, what’s the best way for them to plug into your pipeline and reach you directly?

Robert Politzer (30:14)
Yeah. ⁓ couple ways they can they can email me, [email protected] It’s G-R-E-E-N-S-T-R-E-E-T, greenstreetglobal.com. They can connect with me on LinkedIn. I’m Robert Politzer and excuse me, LinkedIn. We have a Facebook page, ⁓ GreenStreet Global Facebook page, and we have a funnel also, ⁓ which which has a really great

⁓ explanation of our AssetMax program. And that’s simply go.greenstreetglobal.com So that would be probably the best way. Go in there, get, you know, go through the the the ⁓ the presentation that I created, ⁓ developed, and then you can schedule an appointment directly with me through that funnel.

Scott Bursey (30:58)
Robert, you have really brought the fuel today. Thank you for joining us.

Robert Politzer (31:02)
My pleasure. It’s been great. Thanks, Scott.

Scott Bursey (31:04)
You bet. It was our pleasure. And to our listeners, it has been a pleasure bringing Robert to you. We appreciate you. If you have received value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be filling your tanks with a lineup of a leak guest, just like Robert Politzer who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you on the next episode, everyone.