443-447 Jersey Avenue

Overview

443-447 Jersey Avenue, originally built as St. Mark’s Hall and most recently home to the New Bethel Baptist Church, is a four-story, 10-unit multifamily adaptive reuse project. The development transformed the former church and adjacent townhome into modern residential units while preserving and repurposing existing structures around a central courtyard. The design features all-electric systems and above-code building envelope insulation and lighting power densities, resulting in energy efficiency, sustainability, and superior resident comfort.

ReVireo conducted energy modeling to demonstrate compliance with New Jersey energy code through a performance-based pathway. This approach offered the flexibility needed to navigate the complexities of the adaptive reuse project, helping the project team balance energy performance, constructability, budget, and preservation of the existing structure.

Through performing energy modeling and utilizing the energy code performance pathway, ReVireo enabled the project team to:

• Successfully adapt and retrofit an existing church and townhome into multifamily housing, preserving the embodied carbon of the existing structures and avoiding the environmental impacts associated with demolition and new construction.
• Eliminate the need for costly Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs) in each apartment through whole-building performance modeling that isn’t subject to prescriptive code requirements.
• Support an all-electric retrofit strategy, reducing operational greenhouse gas emissions and supporting long-term decarbonization goals.
• Streamline energy code documentation and the permitting process for municipal approval.