A HISTORIC BUILDING IS REBORN AS A BOUTIQUE HOTEL PACKED WITH GREEN TECHNOLOGY .

Contributed by DEREK HERSCOVICI

No different than other retail stores , it began to face stiff competition and by the 1960s business drastically declined .

In 1982 , Zahn ’ s closed its doors for good . Decades after , it had stood as a relic , frozen in time , a reminder of the halcyon years of Racine , but also its commercial decline . Imagine , then , the shock and awe for Racine natives , young and old , when they behold what Zahn ’ s has now become , a boutique hotel called Hotel Verdant — a conversion project that has taken the city and the broader U . S . by storm .

The city ’ s first boutique is a vision of its potential future , a stylish rebirth blending the past with a futuristic array of green and sustainable technology . With LEED-Gold certification expected soon , it might be the “ greenest ” hotel in all the Midwest , said Dominion Properties Founder and Chairman Mike O ’ Connor , who served as co-lead on Hotel Verdant .

“ We ’ re a green company doing green things in this hotel ,” said O ’ Connor . “ We wanted to create a really unique gathering space for the community and businesses and have all the usual things you would want to have in a hotel . But as developers , we ’ ve done LEED- Platinum projects before , and we wanted to make a hotel that was also sustainable .”

MULTIFAM TO HOTELS This is the first hotel from Dominion , a longtime Milwaukee apartment developer , and sustainability was a core tenet guiding the design . The LEED ( Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ) designation is more than just a rating . Beyond

generating its own electricity — and reducing Hotel Verdant ’ s power bill — it symbolizes a commitment to sustainability as a practice . Even the name , Hotel Verdant , is a nod to environmentalism .

Dominion Properties has built LEED-Platinum certified apartment complexes before and O ’ Connor understands the apprehension of designing green tech-heavy projects . “ But when you get a calculator out and start doing the math , then people start to get it ,” he said .

What made the installation of all this green tech so smooth was acquiring a vacant lot to the south of the Zahn ’ s building . Before a four-floor addition was built , geothermal wells were sunk 500 feet below to connect to the heat pump HVAC system . On the ground floor , hidden out of sight , are electric transfers and generators . For the eco-minded guest , 10 free charging stations are available for electric vehicles .

But perhaps most impressive is what ’ s on the roof — a range of solar panels add extra kilowatts to the electrical grid .

“ It ’ s the only commercial solar-panel roof you can see without getting into a hard hat ,” said Mike Cornell , CIO of ArchSolar , who helped install the bifacial solar panels and used a “ green roof ” of a specialized grass to hold it in place . Besides helping to meet permit requirements of withstanding 90-mile-per-hour winds , it recycles rainwater and never needs to be trimmed . When heavy Midwest winters blanket it with snow , the twosided panels will melt it in a

Jan / Feb 2024 hotelsmag . com 73