Month: June 2023

June 13, 2023

Retroactive guidelines to change in August

Multifamily Retroactive Program Guidelines Revision

Program Guidelines for C-PACE in Philadelphia and the rest of Pennsylvania counties were updated in September of 2022, incorporating the expansion of C-PACE which included eligibility for multifamily rental properties of 5 or more units as well as resiliency and Indoor Air Quality measures. 

The Program Guidelines issued then and currently in effect in Philadelphia limit retroactive financing as follows:

“Retroactive C-PACE financings for building types and measures made newly eligible through Act 43 must occur after September 6, 2022 (60 days after the Pennsylvania C-PACE Statute was enacted on July 7, 2022) and within 730 days after the completion of the installation/construction (as proven by the date on the Certificate of Occupancy or other acceptable construction completion documentation). Retroactive financing requirements are detailed in Section 11.0 of the September 2022 Philadelphia C-PACE Program Guidelines.” (Addendum Page 3, page 72 of the PDF).  

The Philadelphia C-PACE program will be modifying its Program Guidelines to remove this timing requirement. Instead, all C-PACE eligible projects will be able to use retroactive financing within 730 days after the completion of the installation/construction (as proven by the date on the Certificate of Occupancy or other acceptable construction completion documentation). 

The revised Program Guidelines will most likely be issued in August 2023. At that time, PEA will accept C-PACE pre-applications and final applications for retroactive projects that were completed prior to September 6, 2022.

This change is for the Philadelphia program only.  If you have a project in another PA county, please contact the SEF team at cpace@thesef.org regarding that county’s program guidelines. 

Contact cpace@philaenergy.org for questions about the Philadelphia program.

June 8, 2023

PACE Equity closes first Philly deal with Bromley Loom House

PACE Equity, the Philadelphia Energy Authority and the owners of 2315-2325 N. Front Street closed the 14th C-PACE deal in Philadelphia with $997,706 to finance energy efficiency and water conservation measures for a newly constructed multifamily/mixed use property in East Kensington.  Fact sheets for this project and all PA C-PACE projects can be found here. 

The property is known as the Bromley Loom House. It is a 63-unit multifamily property with two commercial units. Greg Ambrosi, CFO of Ampere Capital Group, the developer/owner of the property stated, “while we used C-PACE funding as a stop gap for supply chain overages and a bridge loan our first time using the product, I definitely see the value of utilizing the product moving forward from the beginning of construction. It is priced better than almost all current construction lending, and can really shore up the capital stack; decreasing equity needs while lowering overall cost of capital, and also improving ratios that banks value. Add that to the fact that Lisa’s team from the city and Aysha’s team from PACE-Equity were very responsive, this was a very smooth process.”

“We applaud the team at Ampere Capital Group for choosing long-term, non-recourse PACE financing for the Bromley Loom House,” stated Stephen Arrivello, PACE Equity’s Philadelphia Managing Director. PACE Equity helps complete the capital stack with low-cost capital by funding improvements that contribute to lower energy costs and lower carbon.”

PEA is pleased to welcome PACE Equity to the growing group of C-PACE capital providers having closed projects in Philadelphia (Nuveen Green Capital, Counterpointe SRE, CCG PACE, Enhanced Capital, and Twain Financial Partners). 

$158 million of private capital utilizing the C-PACE program has been invested in energy efficiency, water conservation and solar energy during the first three years of the program’s inception in Philadelphia. C-PACE may also be used for resiliency and indoor air quality improvements.

This project is notable because of the speed it was approved and closed. It took just seven weeks from submission of the pre-application to recording the C-PACE assessment. 

Interested in learning more about C-PACE? Contact us at cpace@philaenergy.org and/or attend our C-PACE Open Meetings which take place on the last Thursday of each month from 2:00-3:00PM. See all C-PACE Philadelphia events here.