Gaia Hotel just shy of LEED's Gold standard

LEED SILVER CERTIFIED: From left, Gaia Anderson Hotel, Restaurant and Spa General Manager Shannon Niederberger, Anderson Mayor Norma Comnick and hotel developer Wen I Chang display the LEED Silver 2009 medal earned by the hotel for its green building practices and operations.

Atman Hospitality Group, Inc., doing business in Anderson as the Gaia Anderson Hotel, Restaurant & Spa, recently received word that it had missed its goal of Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council by one point.

"We were shooting for the gold," said Wen I Chang of San Francisco, builder and green hotel developer who's Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa was the world's first Gold certified hotel under the council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System<0x2122> located along Interstate 5 at 4125 Riverside Place in north Anderson.

Instead, Chang ended up earlier this month with a LEED Silver rating and 34 extra points that he can use as the owner of an existing structure if he later adds the features that are needed to bring his Anderson property up to LEED Gold standards or higher.

"Our arrangement was for the building's specifications to finish well above the gold mark," said Chang, who proudly displays the Anderson hotel's Silver certification - a large glass medallion etched with the U.S. Green Building Council's logo, an oak leaf, the year 2009 and the LEED Silver rating - near the registration desk.

However, when the ripples of U.S. economic weakness finally washed ashore in Asia last year, Chang's primary investor, the Far East Bank, withdrew its financing for a third Gaia Hotel planned for Merced and also pulled $1.5 million intended for an array of solar panels atop the Gaia Anderson Hotel, Chang told the Valley Post.

Chang said he may add the solar panels later and try for LEED Gold as an existing building.