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The CPACE Game Changer 12:00-1:15 PST
Commercial financing for water conservation, efficiency, renewables and resiliency. For buildings: nonprofit, tribal, government, hospitality, retail, healthcare, housing, and agriculture.
Commercial building owners and developers can finance up to 100% of hard and soft costs of building performance and resiliency improvements, with little to no cash down. Learn how you can get longer payback amortizations and increase your cashflow with this program that now operates in 35 states.
-Breakout sessions are in the meeting that follows afterward and registration for either gives you links to both-
Moderator:
Michael Bahr, Michael Bahr Consulting
Panelists:
Rachel Davis, Petros PACE Finance
Phillipe Hartley, CleanEnergy LLC
Rafi Golberstein, PACE Loan Group
Robert Countryman, First Interstate Bank
CPACE Breakout Sessions 1:30-3:00 pm PST
Moderator:
Paula Latasa, 350Deschutes Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (CPACE) Manager
Choose breakout sessions by sector:
Hospitality/Office/Retail: Dana White, Greenworks Lending
Health Care/Assisted & Independent Living: Matthew McCormack, PACE Loan Group
Multi-Family-Affordable Housing: Phillippe Hartley, Clean Financing LLC
Agriculture: Michael Bahr, Michael Bahr Consulting
Tribal: Colin Kalvas, Bricker & Eckler
Local Governments: Michael Yaki, Petros PACE Finance
-The presentation is in the prior session and and can be attended separately. One registration gives you links to both.-
PANELIST BIOS
Michael Bahr, Michael Bahr Consulting
Michael Bahr has been a project developer for more than 25 years. He has been a CPACE project developer and financier for 5 CPACE programs and has consulted with 5 others as they set up their initial CPACE programs. He was a CPACE project developer for the Los Angeles County Commercial PACE program, the GreenFinance San Francisco Commercial PACE program, Ygrene Energy Fund, Poppy Bank and ReNewAll. His CPACE funded projects have included energy efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation and seismic retrofits for commercial offices, multifamily, hospitality and agriculture. With ReNewAll, Michale developed and led the Hilton Universal City energy efficiency retrofit which at the time was the largest CPACE financed project in the nation. ReNewAll also led financing for the nation’s largest commercial Net Zero Plus project. He also created a Renewable Energy Services Program focused on CPACE financing for the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Los Angels Chapters of the Ironworkers.
Rachel Davis, Senior Vice President of Sales, Petros PACE Finance
Rachel is based in Houston and oversees all business development and marketing activities and is responsible for the growing originations team. She began her career at Reliant Energy, a Houston based provider of electricity and smart energy services. As a Marketing Manager, she spent 12 years working with customers and consultants managing commodity price risk through electricity contracts in Texas and the Northeast. Most recently, Rachel led a national business development team for NRG Energy, a Fortune 200 energy company, where along with her team, she pursued partnerships for onsite/offsite solar, wind, community solar, energy efficiency and combined heat and power systems with Fortune 500 clients. Additionally, she worked with strategic partner firms in the energy efficiency sector to develop and implement sales acquisition strategies for thermal energy storage and evaporative pre-cooling solutions for utility programs in California. Rachel graduated with honors from Texas A&M University with a BBA in Marketing.
Philippe Hartley, Clean Financing LLC, Managing Director C-PACE marketplace, PACEfi.com
Philippe founded CleanEnergy in 2014 to help accelerate financing for the small-to-medium (sub-$5MM) commercial smart energy sector. A California-licensed general and electrical contractor, Philippe spent years running a solar installation company. He knows first-hand that financing can be the make-or-break part of a project. Since 2004, Philippe has overseen, sold, managed or financed thousands of solar projects at the residential, commercial and industrial level. Now focused on helping to make US building infrastructure better, he is a national expert on Commercial PACE financing, and tax structures. “Yesterday was all about solar” says Philippe “but today it’s about efficiency: time, resource, productivity and financial efficiency. In the end, that is what we contribute.” Philippe is a regular guest writer on project finance for Renewable Energy World and Solar Power World magazines.
Rafi Golberstein, PACE Loan Group, President & CEO
Rafi is the CEO of PACE Loan Group (PLG), a national direct PACE lender. Rafi is a commercial real estate veteran with over 15 years of experience in loan origination and direct real estate investments. Prior to founding PACE Loan Group, Rafi spent his career on Wall Street where he was a Managing Director at Ladder Capital, a publicly traded REIT. Prior to Ladder, Rafi worked at Gramercy Capital conducting asset management and loan workouts. Rafi began his career at Credit Suisse in its large loan commercial real estate group. Throughout his career, Rafi has originated and closed over $2.5 billion of commercial real estate loans, including in Oregon where PACE Loan Group wrote the first ever PACE loan in the state.
Robert Countryman, Market President - Portland & Seattle, First Interstate Bank
Robert joined First Interstate Bank in 2013, and currently oversees retail banking, commercial & business banking, treasury management, SBA lending and commercial real estate lending for the bank’s Portland and Seattle Metro markets. Robert has over 25 years of leadership experience in the banking and financial services industry. Prior to joining FIB, Robert held Executive and Senior level positions at other financial institutions in the Portland, Seattle and Dallas, TX markets. Robert is experienced with CPACE lending programs and successfully integrated PACE loans into two flagship commercial projects that First Interstate financed in Portland – “Premier Gear & Machine Works Building” (Class-A office adaptive reuse) and “The PAE Living Building” (zero-carbon office ground-up construction project).
Robert is very active in the Portland community and has held numerous volunteer leadership
positions with local non-profits and business organizations. Education: B.S. Finance/Law- Portland State University
Dana White, Certified Public Accountant, Greenworks Lending
Dana joined Greenworks Lending from Nuveen 2 years ago focusing on business development in the West Coast markets, but has closed C-PACE assessments in numerous other markets nationwide. Her deep experience in the commercial estate market distinguishes her from her peers in the C-PACE industry. She has over 25 years of experience in commercial real estate finance having closed in excess of $2.0 billion of loans. After working for Bank of America on CMBS loans and pools, she has spent time working on development and construction financing with PNC Bank and Bank of the West/BNPP Paribas. She previously worked for a national homebuilder, Pulte, which gave her significant insights into hands-on construction. Dana has a M.S in Real Estate from Johns Hopkins University; a B.S. degree in Accounting from the University of Maryland; and was a licensed CPA in the state of Maryland.
Matthew McCormack, Pace Loan Group, VP Originations
Matthew joined PLG in 2018 as an Analyst and Junior Originator. As Vice President, he is responsible for loan origination, loan underwriting, and portfolio monitoring. Prior to joining PLG, Matthew completed similar duties while working in US Bank’s Commercial Real Estate and Real Estate Structured Finance Groups. At US Bank, Matthew was responsible for property and borrower underwriting for warehouse lines, construction loans, and balance sheet refi’s across all asset classes. Matthew is a graduate of Saint John’s University (MN) with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.
Michael Yaki, Senior Vice President & Senior Counsel of Policy and Programs, Petros PACE Finance
Michael’s PACE law and policy expertise has driven new market creation and PACE innovations across the country. As an industry thought leader, Michael has advised legislators in both state and local governments and local program administrators on how to establish successful C-PACE programs. His most recent accomplishment was serving as the primary author of the state of Washington C-PACE statute enacted in June 2020. In addition, his deep knowledge of the intricacies of C-PACE programs and a deft hand with deal-making has resulted in the completion of some of the largest C-PACE financings to date in the industry. Michael received his B.A. from UC Berkeley and his J.D. from the Yale Law School.
