U.S. Capital Holding LLC’s 321 North

Plantation, Fla.-based U.S. Capital Holdings LLC’s proposed mixed-use redevelopment project, called 321 North, has been accepted into the LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot program. The program is a collaboration of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council to evaluate developments that incorporate smart growth, new urbanism and green design principles.

The $350 million 321 North project will be located on a 33-acre site in Plantation, and incorporate shopping, dining and entertainment components. “A high-profile project of this size and scope has the opportunity to serve as a benchmark for other projects and encourage the promotion of green building principles,” said Paul D’Arelli, legal counsel for the project.

G&D Developers, based in North Miami Beach, Fla., and The Weintraub Cos., in Hialeah, Fla., announced that they began demolition on the site of Regatta 2, a Miami Beach condominium project that will have its own marina.

The developers intend to preserve the façade of the 1950s Queen Elizabeth Apartment Hotel by integrating it into the project as a recreation room with gourmet kitchen, lounge and entertainment area. Other amenities include a porte-cochere entrance, waterfront sundeck with heated swimming pool and whirlpool and a state-of-the art fitness center. The project is slated to be completed in March 2010.

White Plains, N.Y.-based Cappelli Enterprises is building a new three-story structure in downtown White Plains that will house the Via Quadronno café. The design is comprised of
diamond-shaped glass panels to complement two 44-story glass towers Cappelli is building nearby for The Ritz-Carlton, Westchester.

Due to historically low water supply levels in Sonoma County, Calif., Sebastopol, Calif.-based IBIS Builds recently constructed 12 lofts in Sebastopol that employ a gray water recycling system that will conserve an estimated 900 gallons of water each week. The Florence Lofts will use recycled water from bathing and laundry to provide 100 percent of the site’s landscape irrigation.

New York City-based Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (SHCA) designed the renovated Nassau County Public Safety Center in Westbury, N.Y., with construction currently underway. The facility will house the county’s E911 police and fire call center, a haz/mat and bomb squad response center, as well as offices and conference rooms for county staff and officials. The reconstructed facility is expected to be completed in January 2009.

SHCA also designed a 600,000-square-foot, 21-story office tower at 125th Street and Park Avenue in New York City called Harlem Park. The main shaft of the tower features a unitized aluminum and glass curtainwall system with integrated, vertical terra cotta color fins that create an enclosure intended to echo the masonry of the surrounding neighborhood.