Beach City is going solar.
Developer Ed St. George has converted his 84-unit apartment building, 801 to 831 Cliff Drive on the Mesa near Santa Barbara City College, to solar power.
“After discovering in 2013 that buildings are responsible for up to 50% of the world’s carbon footprint, I had the goal from the day I bought this property to take it to a carbon neutral status within five to seven years,” St. George said.
The 800-kilowatt project cost $2.5 million, about the twice the amount he originally estimated. The goal is to make the building carbon neutral. St. George has worked on gaining approvals from Southern California Edison.
In the next stage, he plans to convert 13 townhouses at Beach City and add nine electric car charging stations.
“It’s much more difficult to convert older buildings, but also much more important since most older buildings are energy hogs,” St. George said.
It’s the latest environmental upgrade for St. George at the site.
He purchased the property in 2014 and retrofitted the faucets, shower heads and toilets, and relandscaped the property with a drip system.
“We cut our water consumption by over 50%,” St. George said.
In 2016, the developer replaced the apartment building’s windows with more energy-efficient, dual-glazed windows, sliding doors and added shade coefficients above the windows. The company replaced all apartments appliances with energy-efficient models.He also furnished all of the Beach City apartments because he noticed that at his Isla Vista properties many students threw out furniture every year, contributing to waste.
“I wished more landlords could furnish their apartments, but it’s not always practical, especially for the mom-and-pop smaller buildings,” St. George said. “We are very close to our neutral goal with this phase of the solar now completed.”
The changes come at a difficult time financially for the developer.
“My company has lost millions of dollars this year since schools never reopened, so I probably won’t be needing the tax write-off solar typically brings,” St. George said.
St. George is one of the region’s most high-profile developers. He and his business partners recently won a development agreement with the City of Santa Barbara to build an 82-unit apartment project at 711 Milpas St., on Santa Barbara’s Eastside.
He said the changes at the property, including the solar, are part of his efforts to invest in Beach City, an apartment building for students.
“We are setting an example for our student tenants on how important the enivronment is to our survival as humans and the impact of all living creatures,” St. George said. “I want my tenants to be proud that the impact will be lessened where they live.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
