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tweetLafayette, CO—Colorado C-PACE today announced that the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum (USOPM), a Colorado non-profit organization utilized $8.4 million in C-PACE retroactive[1] financing toward the construction of their 64,000 sq. ft. museum dedicated to America’s greatest athletes and their compelling stories. The museum, located in Colorado Springs, represents El Paso County’s second C-PACE financed project, hot on the heels of their first project financed in November.
Financing and engineering support was provided by PACE Equity, a national C-PACE lender established in 2014. This is PACE Equity’s fourth C-PACE financed project in the state of Colorado. Beau Engman, President of PACE Equity, said, “We were thrilled to work with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum team to help them create this beautiful new facility. PACE Equity financing can help developers build efficient and sustainable facilities with a low cost of capital which is especially important in today’s economic environment.”
The museum’s design features a high efficiency chiller and boiler plant, high efficiency heat pump systems, high-performance windows, and LED lighting. Pam Shockley-Zalabak, acting CEO for the USOPM, said, “The museum is designed to inspire and reinforce Olympic and Paralympic hopes and dreams – both today’s and future ones — through physical, digital, and virtual experiences that are engaging, relevant, and authentic for every visitor from nearby, across the nation, and around the world. C-PACE financing helped us construct this amazing facility to document and share the history of the United States’ Olympic and Paralympic achievements in a museum that’s both energy efficient and environmentally responsible.”
Crystal LaTier, Economic Development Executive Director for El Paso County, said, “The New York Times listed Colorado Springs as one of the ‘Places to Go in 2020,’ and this new museum is one of the reasons why.” The Museum was selected as the country’s Best New Attraction in 2020 by USA TODAY’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards. “We are delighted to have C-PACE available in El Paso County and Colorado Springs; this project represents another great example of how building owners and developers are using this powerful financing tool as a resource to help achieve energy efficiency and a better built environment.”
Samantha Bailey, Sustainability Coordinator for Colorado Springs, said, “Colorado Springs is expected to be the largest city in Colorado by land and population by 2050. Without careful and intentional planning, the City’s predicted population growth, coupled with changing climate conditions, will increase pressure on its natural resources, public health, and almost every other aspect of life in Colorado Springs. C-PACE financing will play an integral role as a tool to help building owners and developers reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to our City’s sustainability goals.”
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 efficiency 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 Energy Performance Improvement Calculator (EPIC™) tool 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 over $650 million in C-PACE financing nationwide. SRS empowers C-PACE public-private partnerships across the country. The company is based in Newtown, Connecticut.
[1] Financing is available through C-PACE retroactively for new construction and gut-rehabilitation projects that have received a certificate of occupancy within two years of a prequalification submission form.