Energy-Oriented Financing Complete for D.C. Apartments

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

Washington, D.C.—Urban Energy Advisors has completed Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing for a 139-unit affordable apartment property in Washington, D.C., totaling $340,000. The project is located at 400 M Street in southeast DC and is part of the Capper Carrollsburg HOPE VI redevelopment.

The upgrades included lighting, low-flow water fixtures and a 37-kilowatt rooftop solar array, designed to provide more than $40,000 in annual benefits from avoided costs and tax credits. Purchased energy has been reduced by more than 15 percent, according to Urban Energy Advisors.

By allowing property owners to finance green building upgrades with no out-of-pocket payments, repaid through a special tax assessment, this kind of financing reduces the risk of lending and improves operating incomes, Urban Energy Advisors managing director Bracken Hendricks says. He adds that the technique has the potential to be done elsewhere in the country.

PACE is a District of Columbia program that provides financing to commercial property owners to fund energy efficiency improvements. The financing is repaid over a period of up to 20 years through a special tax assessment on the property.  The program, enacted as part of the Energy Efficiency Financing Act of 2010, was launched in April 2012.

Previously, Urban Energy Advisors was selected through a competitive bid process to design and manage DC’s PACE program for energy upgrades in commercial, institutional, and multifamily buildings, with authority to issue $250 million dollars in revenue bonds. The District Department of the Environment oversees the administration of the program on behalf of the government of the District of Columbia.