Community College Taps C-PACE to Retroactively Finance Energy Efficiency Upgrades

Lafayette, CO—Colorado C-PACE announced today that Front Range Community College will leverage $1.5 million in financing provided by PACE Loan Group, to fund recently completed upgrades on two of their Longmont campus buildings. Upgrades to the aging infrastructure of these buildings included new HVAC systems, plumbing upgrades, and LED lighting.

Kris Jankowski, president of GIP Longmont, LLC, which owns the Front Range Community College buildings, said, “Given the impact of COVID-19 on our market, we are doing everything we can to improve cash yields”. He added, “Once we learned Colorado’s C-PACE financing can be applied retroactively up to 24 months, we jumped at the opportunity to leverage the program to help.”

Kevin Cook, CEO of G-Energy LLC, who developed the savings projections for the project said, “Our design analysis showed that over the collective average 20-year useful life of the improvements the college will save approximately $2.1 million in energy costs, yielding a net savings of $500,000 over the term of the loan.”

Rafi Goldberstein, president and CEO of PACE Loan Group, added, “This is a prime example of investors taking advantage of Colorado’s C-PACE retroactive financing to help increase equity yields through the use of PACE. We are pleased to have assisted GIP Longmont, LLC in the completion of this transaction.”

About Colorado C-PACE

A program of the New Energy Improvement District (NEID), administered by Sustainable Real Estate Solutions, Colorado C-PACE facilitates financing for energy and water improvements in new and existing commercial buildings, including new heating/cooling systems, lighting, water pumps, insulation, and renewable energy projects. C-PACE offers long-term financing that covers 100 percent of the project cost and is repaid over a period of up to 25 years. The payments are structured as a regular line item on the property tax bill.  When a property is sold, the C-PACE assessment can stay with the property and transfer to the new owner, who enjoys the ongoing utility cost savings associated with the project.

About SRS

Sustainable Real Estate Solutions (SRS) partners with state and local governments to administer commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) programs. Founded in 2010 by experienced commercial real estate and energy efficiency professionals, the company’s proprietary technology-enabled PACEworx™ Platform streamlines the management of the data-intensive C-PACE technical and financial underwriting process. SRS’s Investor Confidence Project-credentialed quality assurance methodology has facilitated more than $410 million in C-PACE financing nationwide. SRS empowers C-PACE public-private partnerships across the country. The company is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.