CounterpointeSRE completes the first Commercial PACE financing in Ingham County Michigan

 Counterpointe Sustainable Real Estate (CounterpointeSRE) announced today that it has completed the first Commercial PACE (C-PACE) financing in Ingham County to finance a gut rehabilitation of the Orla H. Bailey buildings, formerly Belen’s Flowers at 515 Ionia Street in Lansing, Michigan, just two blocks from the state Capitol building. The two-building complex is being converted into energy efficient office and retail space that will include widespread energy efficiency and renewable energy generation upgrades including an electric vehicle charging station, solar panels and CHP (combined heat and power) unit.

The owners will utilize PACE financing in a complex capital stack that includes brownfield funding, traditional debt, as well as historic tax credits. This project will provide an economic injection into a distressed neighborhood and highlights how PACE can replace mezzanine debt in a project’s capital stack to produce a blended interest rate that makes such projects feasible. The 100% financing of energy efficiency and renewable generation improvements allows the owners to minimize value engineering and to retrofit the building with no capital outlay for equipment upgrades that will reduce operating costs through utility savings.

The Belen Building’s $250,000, 20-year fixed rate PACE assessment will cover the costs of everything from solar panels to windows, doors and a combined heating and power unit, and will generate over $425,000 of energy savings over the life of the improvements.

“We are pleased to help 515 Ionia LLC make these energy saving and efficiency upgrades, enhance the neighborhood, and preserve their capital for future investments. This is surely the first of many PACE projects we will do in Ingham County,” said Eric Alini, Managing Partner at CounterpointeSRE.

C-PACE makes financial sense for energy conservation and efficiency, sustainability and resiliency improvements by providing fixed-rate financing for 100% of the project and closing costs, covering retrofits to ground-up construction. Unlike traditional financing, C-PACE financing is repaid through a voluntary assessment on your property taxes.