BERMUDA'S first officially "green" building project ? a $50-million complex in downtown Hamilton ? will be constructed by local developers over the next two years.

Purvis Projects Ltd. (PPL) aims to complete the seven-storey building at the corner of Victoria Street and Brunswick Street by the summer of 2007, adhering to strict US guidelines on environmental friendliness.

The company believes the design of Victoria Place will allow tenants to cut energy and service costs by nearly half, compared to a similar-sized, conventionally constructed building.

And PPL also believes its building, the design of which will aim to maximise the comfort and good health of those working inside, will allow for greater productivity from the employees of tenants. Renewable energy sources ? including solar panels, a wind turbine and a geothermal water system drawing from subterranean wells ? will be built in with the target of providing the equivalent of around five per cent of the complex's electricity needs.

The three connected buildings will also have an educational value, with displays on how some of these sustainable energy systems work.

Those benefits, as well as the environmental advantages, outweigh the extra attention to detail, increased management costs and paperwork necessary for the company's decision to voluntarily adhere to the green building regulations, according to PPL president and project director Geoff Parker, Sr.

The complex will be built on a site of three-quarters of an acre, where there is now a parking lot and has been home to Furniture Flair, Safeguard Securities and the Total Fitness Centre.

Two of its seven storeys will be below street level and the complex will comprise offices, shops, a restaurant, a gym, three squash courts, an aerobics and dance studio, a garden area and a rooftop pool designed for aquatic therapy.

Early plans for apartments to be included have been scrapped, as that would have added around $10 million to the cost of the project. PPL will be the first developers in Bermuda to build according to the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) guidelines.

Construction has to be independently monitored to verify that the required materials and processes are used. Points are awarded for meeting the standards and there are categories for various degrees of greenness ? in ascending order, certified, silver, gold and platinum.

PPL is aiming for the gold standard with Victoria Place. The guidelines are extremely wide-ranging and take in aspects such as the environmental impact of the building and recycling of waste from the site, as well as energy efficiency and the toxicity of materials used. PPL president Geoff Parker said he was proud to be pioneering green building on the island and he hoped the idea would catch on.

"I believe the LEED guidelines should become our building code ? every building should be constructed this way," Mr. Parker said.

"We had a seminar at the Hamilton Princess, with our adviser, Greg Franta, and we invited people with an interest. Among the people who came were about 20 from the Planning Department and the Department of the Environment.

"The seminar was well received and people really seemed to understand what it is all about, especially those from Planning."

Mr. Parker intends to invite representatives from the island's entire construction industry to attend a future seminar with Mr. Franta.

"Purvis Ltd. has been around since 1920 and throughout the decades has constructed buildings that were state of the art for their time. I believe that green building is the way all building will be done in the future. I see the introduction of the LEED programme as one of Purvis's contributions to Bermuda.

"We're hoping that this programme will be accepted readily and taken up by our peers. We are introducing it and holding seminars so people can discuss it. Then it is up to Bermuda to find out more and decide whether they want it.

"Although we are the first, green building is not something we want to keep to ourselves. This is something that can benefit the island. That is why we are inviting competitors to our seminars."

Demolition is scheduled to start next month to make way for the building of Victoria Place to begin in September.

PPL was founded in August last year specifically to oversee the Victoria Place project. Its small team includes architect Geoff Parker, Jr., who is the project director's son, architectural technologist Stephen Van Sickle, deputy project director Alan Gamble and office manager Sakeena Talbot, whose duties include ensuring the LEED paperwork is kept up to date.

Mr. Parker, Jr. said: "We are still on a steep learning curve. Building a LEED building is not rocket science, more than anything it's a matter of spending more time on it. It's just a different approach.

"As oil prices keep rising and the price of electricity keeps going up, it will become increasingly attractive to businesses to have a high-performance building to keep their overheads down.

"As we will be renting out the building, the tenants will be the ones who benefit most from this building, but for us, it's good marketing, to establish a niche market for ourselves.

"You have to approach the project in a holistic way and we are consulting with electrical engineers and contractors during the design process to ensure everything will be feasible. It's easier and cheaper to deal with problems at the design stage rather than later on."

Green building has taken longer to catch on in the US than it has in Europe, but now LEED regulations are being widely followed in the States.

Mr. Parker, Sr. said that for many years, green building materials were not readily available and so cost significantly more to obtain than conventional ones. As a result, green building costs used to be ten to 15 per cent more.

"Now it's not so onerous getting hold of the right materials, because green building is becoming very popular," Mr. Parker said. "I believe that Victoria Place will be, if anything, slightly cheaper to build than a conventional building of the same size.

"In the US, there can be very few architects' offices that don't have a LEED specialist, because so many people are asking for their buildings to be built that way now. Some US city authorities are now stipulating that anything built for them has to meet LEED standards.

"Things have changed because in the past there were cases of contractors cutting costs by using cheap materials. With LEED, everything has to be checked and verified, so the public can be assured of value for money."