A historic waterfront property in San Francisco will receive an energy efficiency overhaul courtesy of a creative financing scheme that eliminates the upfront cost to install new equipment. Pier 1, home to real estate firm Prologis, Inc., is the first retrofit project closed (PDF) under the City of San Francisco’s GreenFinanceSF property assessed clean energy (PACE) program.
I’ve written at this blog about the launch of commercial PACE programs in California, Connecticut, and South Florida. The Pier 1 project is further proof that commercial PACE financing is entering the mainstream.
What had been missing until recently were closed deals. In September, I wrote about the HERO program, a residential and commercial PACE program operating in western Riverside County, California, that at the time of my writing had financed 300 residential projects worth $5 million, with $20 million in commercial projects expected to close in the coming year.