Southside (JM) - Stonegate Realty's $10 million conversion of a former plumbing warehouse into luxury loft condominiums hit a snag on Monday when the U. S. Green Building Council rejected its application for certification under its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

Copies of the Council's report indicate that the project, located at 22nd Street and 5th Avenue South, failed to accrue enough performance benchmarks to satisfy the requirements of even the lowest, "silver" certification. Reviewers specifically noted the lack of passive heating and cooling technology, recycled materials, or even low-power lighting options in the project specifications. Speaking anonymously an official with the Green Building Council expressed some surprise at the application, "I'm not sure that the developer really understood the idea of green building as it applies to energy and resource usage over a building's life. Perhaps our organization should expand our educational programs."

Brooke Cosper, an agent with Stonegate Realty, declined to comment on the details of the Council's findings. "Regardless of what a bunch of eggheads in Washington think, we've gone to great lengths to make Liv on Fifth the greenest building on 5th Avenue, if not all of Birmingham.

23 of the project's 36 units remain available at prices ranging from $173,000 to $367,000.