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tweetLafayette, CO—Colorado C-PACE today announced that building owner and developer Doug McMurrain of Plaza Fiesta Colorado, LLC, will use C-PACE financing to reposition the former K-Mart facility at 15200 East Colfax in Aurora, Colorado. As a result, Aurora will have a new 56,586-square-foot, single-story Vasa Fitness center featuring a gymnasium, pool, spa and racquetball courts.
Twain Financial Partners and PCD Engineering joined forces on this gut rehab project. Twain provided nearly $1.7 million in financing for the project, while PCD Engineering provided the technical support and analysis required to qualify for C-PACE financing.
C-PACE financing will significantly reduce McMurrain’s equity contribution and lower the project’s weighted average cost of capital. McMurrain said, “The financing we received under the auspices of Colorado’s C-PACE program provided the incentive we needed to construct a top-notch, energy-efficient building.” He added, “while we could have used other financing, the 20-year term offered by C-PACE means we will have lower annual payments and a very efficient building. We are planning to use C-PACE financing again in the coming months for El Paseo, Colorado, which is the second phase of the project that will leverage the financing to improve the energy use of the 92,428-square-foot facility.”
PCD Engineering’s technical analysis determined energy savings of 8% over an energy-code compliant version of the building. Jacob Goodman of PCD Engineering said, “This fitness center will save natural gas and electricity, prompting a reduction of 124 metric tons of CO2 per year relative to a code-minimum building. The C-PACE program has opened up unique financing opportunities for our customers, and we are currently analyzing several other projects that are in development and pursuing C-PACE financing.”
Twain Financial Partners is no stranger to C-PACE financing. Andrew Meyer of Twain said, “The commercial real estate market in Colorado is geared toward sustainability and PACE financing is a great tool to achieve both financial and sustainability goals of development projects. We have seen an uptick in the Colorado PACE market recently, which we anticipate continuing through 2019 and beyond.”
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 20 years. 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 $175 million in C-PACE financing nationwide—a level unmatched in the industry. SRS empowers C-PACE public-private partnerships across the country. The company is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.