The EDGE Board approved the policies and procedures for the C-PACER (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy & Resiliency) program at its September meeting. The program incentivizes commercial and apartment buildings in the City of Memphis to become more resilient and energy efficient.
C-PACER helps lower construction costs while also reducing development impact, energy consumption, and public infrastructure by enabling commercial property owners to obtain long-term financing from private capital providers (banks). As a privately financed economic development tool, C-PACER does not require a reduction of taxes, grants, or other public funding. The program provides incentives for decreases in water and energy consumption, production of clean renewable energy, improvement in safe drinking water, and overall resiliency improvements, all of which have a lasting impact on both the environment and future development. Qualifying projects must exceed $1 million.
“We thought interest in the program would most appeal to retrofitting existing buildings but to our surprise, the majority of inquiries have come from new construction projects,” said John Lawrence, EDGE Senior Economic Development Specialist.
To date, roughly 28 states have active CPACER programs and another ten 10 are in various stages of implementing their own programs. C-PACER is a collaboration between the City of Memphis, the State of Tennessee, and EDGE who will serve as the administrator of the program.