Denver Apartment Project to Include Energy Saving Attributes

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PACE Equity, a Milwaukee company that finances energy-saving upgrades around the country, said Thursday that a project it’s working on in Denver’s Sloans Lake neighborhood has received funding through an innovative new program designed to boost energy efficiency projects.

The project is a new $16.8 million multifamily building in the Sloans Lake area that will have 82 “micro-unit” studio apartments.

Part of the funding is coming through Colorado’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy program, or C-PACE. The program, overseen by the statewide New Energy Improvement District (NEID) board of directors, aims to help finance projects that in the past have been difficult to do because they didn’t meet the typical return on investment requirements for office or multi-family apartments.

Commercial buildings owners looking at improving their buildings, or building new ones, typically want a return on investment that’s one to three years. But energy efficiency or renewable energy projects can take longer to pay for themselves via lower utility bills.

With C-PACE, the building owner can get a loan to cover the cost of the energy projects. After the project is finished, the repayment of the loan, up to 20 years, is done through a special assessment from the county assessor’s office, with the payment made via a special lien placed on the building’s annual property tax bill.

Read the full article at the Denver Business Journal.