How LEED Certifications Fared in the Multifamily Sector in 2023
An in-depth analysis by project size, location and award category.
Multifamily owners and operators continued to invest in sustainability upgrades, and many made a strong effort to align to current LEED standards. Thanks to data from the U.S. Green Building Council, we’ve filtered the results by state, number of projects, square footage and type of LEED certification.
Some 197 projects across the U.S. received a certain level of LEED certification throughout 2023, amounting to nearly 34.4 million square feet, excluding confidential data. This includes multifamily projects that used both LEED Commercial and LEED Residential certification types and were recertified with LEED Commercial. The top 10 states for LEED certification for multifamily projects—including the District of Columbia—accounted for 29.4 million square feet across 165 projects.
California remained the uncontested leader with 45 multifamily projects with LEED certifications, which totaled 5.7 million square feet combined. The state also had the highest number of LEED Platinum certifications (26), 10 LEED Gold, and eight LEED Silver, while the basic LEED certification went to one project. Among the projects awarded LEED Platinum in California were graduate and family housing communities from UCI and UC Davis.
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New York followed with 41 multifamily projects awarded LEED and led by square footage as it totaled almost 6.6 million square feet of certified and recertified space. Most projects were awarded the Gold level (22 projects), while two were awarded Platinum level certification. Another 10 were Silver, while seven projects were LEED certified. The two New York projects that received USGBC’s highest recognition are located in the Bronx—The Bedford and 2050 Grand Concourse. Both properties have an affordable housing component.
Washington, D.C. came in third with 21 multifamily projects receiving LEED certifications and recertifications. Overall, nearly 5.7 million square feet of space were certified in 2023. The District had 14 projects receive LEED Gold level, two were LEED Platinum, four were LEED Silver and one was LEED certified. One of the LEED Platinum projects is Gallery 64, a partially affordable community owned by a joint venture formed by Lowe Enterprises and Mitsui Fudosan America. According to Yardi Matrix data, the project was built with aid from a $126.6 million construction loan issued by Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.
Washington state followed with nine LEED awards: two LEED Platinum, five LEED Gold, one to the LEED Silver level and one basic LEED certification. Combined, the state had 2.5 million square feet of multifamily space awarded LEED recognition. Notable projects include Boardwalk in Kirkland, a partially affordable community owned by a private investor, which received the LEED Platinum award. Yardi Matrix data reveals that for the construction of the project the owner took out a $56 million construction loan funded by Allianz.
Rounding up the top five was Pennsylvania. The state had eight multifamily projects awarded LEED certifications, for 1.1 million square feet combined. No asset met the Platinum award criteria, instead, seven received the LEED Gold award and one the basic LEED certification.
