Commercial PACE for Affordable Multifamily Housing

C-PACE is a financing structure that enables owners of commercial, industrial and multifamily residential properties to obtain affordable, long-term funds for 100% of the cost of energy and water efficiency retrofits (as well as for distributed generation investments). It works by allowing building owners to finance qualifying improvements by placing a voluntary assessment on their property tax bill, paying for these improvements over time through an additional charge on this bill. Almost always, this voluntary assessment is more than paid for by the energy savings produced by the retrofit.  However, few owners in the affordable multifamily housing sector have taken advantage of C-PACE. This report seeks to understand whether there is an opportunity for C-PACE to fill a gap in financing energy efficiency in the affordable multifamily buildings sector and if so, what are the best practices for ensuring this financing mechanism benefits affordable multifamily stakeholders.