DETROIT — Midland Tomorrow will host an event next month explaining how commercial building owners can finance energy efficiency improvements long term through Michigan’s Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) law.
“Keeping PACE With Energy Efficiency in Michigan” will be held Tuesday, Feb. 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at The Great Hall, 5121 Bay City Road, Midland. A light buffet luncheon will be served at the free event.
Business owners, building owners and managers, architects, consulting engineers, contractors and vendors involved with energy efficient designs and upgrades are invited to attend.
The event will feature two presentations. The first will be from J. Cory Connolly, clean energy project manager with Levin Energy Partners, which is the creator and administrator of Lean and Green Michigan, Michigan’s statewide PACE program. Levin Energy Partners, through Lean and Green Michigan, helps commercial, industrial, multi-family and nonprofit property owners use PACE financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that are profitable for all parties — property owners, contractors, financial institutions and local governments.
Scott Ringlein, CEO and founder of The Energy Alliance Group of Michigan, will present next. EAG is an approved PACE project developer in Michigan. The Energy Alliance Group works with commercial and industrial building owners seeking to increase profitability and achieve environmentally friendly facilities through energy efficiency improvements. That process includes developing comprehensive energy efficiency and renewable energy plans to reduce energy use while achieving an improvement in the owner’s bottom line.
Attendees will learn how to overcome the traditional barriers of funding energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and achieve an immediate improvement in cash flow through Michigan’s PACE financing program, energy efficiency improvements, tax credits, tax incentives, and other cost reduction solutions.
Under PACE financing law, counties, cities and townships may form a PACE district that allows a property owner to use the property tax mechanism to finance energy improvements. The property owner voluntarily takes on a Special Assessment, which it pays off over as long as 20 years, as part of its property tax bill.
Since the PACE loan is a special assessment obligation, it is senior to any mortgage – and hence very secure for a lender. Because of this, if the property owner has a preexisting mortgage, he or she must get the mortgage bank’s consent to the PACE financing. Also, up to 100 percent of the project’s cost can be covered under a PACE special assessment. And the PACE special assessment “runs with the land” – the owner can sell the property and the new owner simply picks up the payments (and energy savings), just as it picks up the obligation to pay property tax.
Michigan’s PACE public-private partnership now includes 18 counties and six cities and townships, which together represent 52 percent of Michigan’s population. For a map of PACE counties and municipalities, visit http://leanandgreenmi.com/index.