Installing New Chillers on a Jersey City Roof
Clarence Williams stands next to the new machines
July 18, 2013 — It was a hot subject. Indeed, the chillers were heating things up at 135 Montgomery Street in Jersey City, raising some temperatures among the 200 shareholders at this 21-story co-op.
Built circa 1963, the building relies upon a chilled water system for air-conditioning. The original electric chiller required replacing with a new gas-fired one in 2009. Then Hurricane Irene struck in 2011, flooding the ground-floor mechanical room and destroying the newly installed chiller it housed. The building bought new ones... again.
Summer in the city
Just when building residents thought their woes over, Superstorm Sandy struck the coast. The practically brand-new machines were flooded. The thought of a summer without air-conditioning was unbearable.
"Sandy was awful," says board president Clarence Williams. "We had flood waters waist high in the lobby." The building lost water and electricity for days. Installations in the basement, laundry room, and mail room were badly damaged or gutted.
That was a blow to the board, says Willliams, who notes, "We've done lots of work throughout the years to make it attractive." That includes landscaping the front of the building and upgrading the lobby following the hurricanes. "We're constantly trying to beautify it in some way."
The co-op may lack amenities, but it has a sought-after waterfront location. Its proximity to malls, schools, and New York City is also a draw, Williams says. The original residents of the building - which was built primarily to house seniors - have mostly died or moved away; newer shareholders are mostly young professionals.
Getting creative
The after-effects of Sandy threatened to upend the board's efforts. Even as the building's board and management - TKR Property Services - worked overtime to restore power and other essentials, they decided it just wasn't feasible to install new chillers every time a hurricane struck. Another - hopefully more enduring - solution had to be found for the future.
"We decided to be creative and to install [new chillers] on the roof," says Williams. The board decided protection from future hurricanes was worth the additional $300,000 it would cost to relocate the machines. Meanwhile, the two boilers - which were not totally destroyed during Sandy - would be repaired and left in place on the ground floor. So, the co-op embarked on an ambitious and challenging upgrade project.
"Timing was a big issue," says property manager Howard Mandel of TKR. "Everyone wanted air-conditioning before the summertime." Another major obstacle loomed: the co-op had what Mandel describes as a "finite" budget for its third chiller replacement in just five years. But flood insurance - plus an assessment on shareholders - got the $1 million job rolling in January.
A new home on the roof
Constantin Settenhofer, a project engineer for Rand Engineering & Architecture who oversaw the project, says the initial dilemma was where to relocate the new chillers: on a 10-foot-tall platform in the parking lot or on the roof.
"We thought it would be more aesthetically pleasing, and probably a little cheaper, to have [them] at roof level," he says. A steel platform where a cooling tower had formerly stood was already there, helping to reduce the total dollar amount.
Once that was decided, engineers scoped the roof to assess its readiness for the bulky and heavy new equipment, which was purchased directly from Japanese manufacturer Yazaki.
On the day the cranes arrived on site to raise the machines, cars had to be moved from the parking lot and residents on higher floors had to relocate for the day.
Quick turnaround
Mandel notes that the upgrade was completed in only six months. The previous chiller-and-boiler project had taken two years - fairly typical for work of this scale, he adds.
"It was incredibly fast," Mandel says, noting that both contractors from National Mechanical and engineers from Rand had worked on the previous replacement after Irene. "They really knew the building very well."
The repaired boilers, pumps, and electrical systems remain in the ground-floor mechanical room. "The next steps will be to try to raise them in the room, so that if there is another flood they are above the water line," says Mandel.
According to Williams, co-op residents are pleased with the results. Not only do they have air-conditioning during what is already a brutal summer, but also the new "double-effect" chillers will provide back-up heating for the building in winter.
"Right now, I'm in my apartment, and it's very comfortable and cool," he says during a recent phone interview. Then he adds: "Meanwhile, it's 94 degrees outside."
PROJECT
Replacing damaged chillers; installing new chillers on the roof
INVESTMENT
$1 million
PARTICIPANTS
Howard Mandel, Managing Agent, TKR Property Services
Constantin Settenhofer, Project Engineer, RAND Engineering & Architecture
Clarence Williams, Board President
PROPERTY TAXES
Assessed Value: $6,000,000
RECENT APARTMENT SALES
Date: 03/02/2012
Sales Price: $185,000
Date: 02/02/2012
Sales Price: $287,000