A rendering of the Courtyard by Marriott at Settlers Ridge outside Pittsburgh.

A first-of-its-kind Courtyard by Marriott has opened near Pittsburgh. The 124-room property in suburban Settlers Ridge is the brand’s first LEED-certified hotel developed from a prototype created by Concord Hotels, the hotel’s owner and operator, with support from Marriott International.

“We first looked at LEED development about three or four years ago,” said Concord President & CEO Mark Laport during last week’s Lodging Conference in Phoenix. “We determined at that time it would put a $1-million premium on a 120-room hotel. Said another way, development costs would have been 10- to 12% higher, and we weren’t sure what kind of payback we could achieve.”

Starting 18 months ago, Concord designers, with input from Marriott, engineered the prototype so the additional cost to build a LEED-certified property is now between $350,000 to $500,000, with a projected payback of about six years. Among the green elements in the Pittsburgh property:

• A heat recovery system that reclaims building exhaust air to pre-heat the building’s fresh air system

• An energy management system that reduces unnecessary heating and cooling run times when guestrooms are vacant

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