From Lender to Market Builder: Colorado C-PACE's New Mandate to Help Connect the Deals.
Colorado C-PACE has the capital and a track record. Its new mandate is connecting owners, lenders, tenants and contractors so whole-building projects get funded.
By Keith Reynolds | Publisher & Editor, ChargedUp!
Key Takeaways
C-PACE lets eligible commercial, industrial, multifamily, agricultural and nonprofit owners finance qualified improvements through a voluntary property tax assessment repaid over terms up to 25 years.
Colorado's program has closed more than 150 C-PACE loans totaling over half a billion dollars, but the program still is not the default financing pathway many advocates and contractors expected.
The primary barrier is coordination, not capital: individual contractors tend to sell their own scope, leaving no one to bundle solar, roof work, storage and efficiency into one financeable project.
PACE Express streamlines financing and lowers fees for simple projects with total financed amounts typically under $500,000.
Senate Bill 25-182 added embodied carbon improvements to the list of C-PACE-eligible measures starting in the 2025 tax year, extending the program past operating energy.
Colorado's commercial buildings need capital for solar, storage, energy efficiency, roof work, HVAC, water conservation, EV charging, resilience and building controls, at a time when owners are already watching vacancy, interest rates, refinancing risk, insurance costs and tenant demand. Jason Bonanno, Executive Director of Market Development for Colorado C-PACE, sees the opportunity less as a shortage of financing than as a need for better market coordination. "There is a financing solution available, which is not the silver bullet by any means, but it helps," Bonanno said in a ChargedUp! interview. "I think people just want some sort of starting point."
That starting point matters because Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy financing, known as C-PACE, was designed for exactly the kind of long-lived building improvements now facing Colorado's commercial real estate market.
How the Program Works
The Colorado New Energy Improvement District, or NEID, is the statewide special district that establishes, develops, implements and administers Colorado C-PACE, according to the district’s website, C-PACE allows eligible commercial, industrial, multifamily, agricultural and nonprofit property owners to finance qualified improvements through long-term private capital. Repayment runs through a voluntary special assessment on the property tax bill, with terms extending up to 25 years.
Legislation enabling the program comes from the state, not the federal government. Colorado passed the C-PACE statute; the counties enforce and collect repayments through the property tax system; private capital providers fund the projects. Federal law shapes the economics indirectly, through tax credits like the Investment Tax Credit and Section 179D that sweeten C-PACE deals, but Washington does not fund, control or mandate the program.
That structure matters because commercial energy projects are rarely isolated. A solar project may need roof work. A storage project may need electrical upgrades. EV charging may need load management. C-PACE can turn those improvements into financeable infrastructure, yet the program has not become the default pathway many clean-energy advocates and contractors once expected. The issue is not that C-PACE lacks capital or policy support. It is that commercial building projects are hard to assemble: the building, lease, lender, contractor, capital provider, tax position and owner's hold period all have to fit.
A Real Track Record, an Execution Gap
Colorado's program is not theoretical. National C-PACE Alliance data put Colorado at 133 projects and about $285.8 million in cumulative volume through 2024. Bonanno said the state has since surpassed 150 C-PACE loans totaling more than half a billion dollars. Those figures show a functioning program with participating counties, registered capital providers and a growing project history. The challenge is not starting from zero. It is moving from specialized use to routine market adoption.
Jason Sharpe, CEO and co-owner of Namaste Solar, raised the question directly in an interview about Colorado's commercial solar market: "What ever happened to C-PACE? C-PACE was supposed to solve some of these problems and open up the commercial markets." His question points to a real puzzle. If C-PACE can finance the improvements commercial buildings need, why does it still feel underused in middle-market solar, storage and building modernization?
The Split Incentive Problem
Part of the answer is the split incentive. In many commercial buildings, the owner who controls the roof and capital plan is not the tenant who pays the utility bill, leaving neither party with a clean reason to fund a major project. C-PACE can help because the improvement is financed through the property and repayment runs through the tax assessment. In triple-net leases where tenants already pay property taxes as an operating expense, the assessment may pass through if the lease allows it. That "if" is the catch. A gross lease may not allow a clean pass-through. A lender may want to understand how the assessment affects collateral. A buyer may ask how the remaining term affects a future sale. That does not make C-PACE unworkable. It means C-PACE is a real estate conversation, not just a financing one.
The Missing Middle
The better question may not be whether C-PACE works, since it clearly can. It is who assembles the project. Rachel Mountain and David Henry of Namaste Solar noted that C-PACE works best when multiple scopes bundle into one holistic energy investment: solar, roof work, efficiency upgrades, electrical infrastructure and storage. But individual contractors are often motivated to sell their own scope, not complicate the transaction by adding other measures. Solar companies sell solar. Roofers sell roofs. HVAC contractors sell HVAC. Lenders focus on collateral and repayment. Property owners are left to decide whether the whole package is worth the trouble. That is the missing middle: C-PACE needs someone to connect roofs, solar, storage, efficiency, financing, lender consent, tenant economics and tax credits into one coherent project, not necessarily a new consultant for every deal, but someone who owns the coordination function.
Bonanno stepped into the market-development role after a career in commercial real estate finance and sustainability, including stops at JPMorgan and Nuveen Green Capital, where he originated C-PACE projects across Colorado. He described the shift in his own role as moving from simply being "the guy with the money" to "connecting the dots." Property owners need to understand where the tool fits. Contractors need to know when to introduce it. Lenders need confidence in the structure. That role is not administrative. It is connective.
Listening Before Selling the Solution
Bonanno also sees a communications challenge around building-performance mandates and owner resistance. Commercial owners are not operating in a vacuum: they are managing vacancy, rising rates, insurance costs and tenant demand, and when energy mandates arrive on top of those pressures, some owners hear only the obligation. "People want to be heard," Bonanno said. "I feel as though there hasn't been a feedback loop. A feedback loop is talking and listening." He framed C-PACE as a practical tool rather than a political argument. "Everybody needs clean air and clean water," he said. "I don't think anyone's really going to object to that. It's just how we get there." If owners hear only the obligation, they wait, resist or do the minimum. If they understand that financing and whole-building planning can create a path forward, the conversation changes.
What Better Packaging Looks Like
For a project to work, the roof needs enough remaining life. Solar, storage or efficiency need to reduce a real cost. The senior lender needs to consent. The assessment needs to pass through cleanly under the lease. Tax credits, depreciation, rebates and safe-harbored project structures need to combine coherently. Those questions determine whether C-PACE becomes useful or burdensome, and Colorado has already taken steps to lower the bar for smaller deals. PACE Express, the district's streamlined pathway, targets simple single-measure or multi-measure projects with total financed amounts typically under $500,000, cutting fees and transaction time for projects too small to justify a complex structure.
The program is also expanding beyond operating energy. In 2025, Colorado adopted Senate Bill 25-182, adding embodied carbon improvements to the list of new energy improvements eligible for C-PACE financing through NEID, starting in the 2025 tax year. That expansion matters because commercial building modernization has broadened past reducing energy use or adding renewable generation. The new frame includes resilience, water management, electrification and materials, which makes C-PACE more relevant to projects rethinking the building itself rather than retrofitting equipment piece by piece.
The Lender Conversation Is Central
Because C-PACE repayment runs through a property tax assessment, the senior lender has to understand how it affects collateral, cash flow, sale and default scenarios. A well-structured project, where the improvements strengthen the property and the savings support the assessment, makes that conversation easier. A project presented casually can stall the transaction instead. That is why the strongest C-PACE projects get underwritten with the lender, tenant, tax advisor and future buyer in mind from the start, not added as an afterthought.
Contractors sit closest to the owner when an improvement gets considered, but many are not finance educators. If they do not understand C-PACE, they will not introduce it. If they introduce it too late, the project is already scoped too narrowly. If they pitch "no money down" without explaining the tax assessment and lender consent process, they create mistrust instead of confidence. Bonanno said having an outreach channel, or what he called "some pulpit to stand on," matters because the program needs advocacy and clearer communication in the areas where C-PACE can help. The goal is not to make every contractor a C-PACE expert. It is to give contractors, advisors, lenders and owners enough shared language to know when to bring the right people to the table.
Colorado Has the Tool. Now It Needs the Connectors.
Owners need ways to fund improvements without draining capital reserves. Contractors need financing tools that move good projects forward. Lenders need confidence that assessments strengthen rather than weaken the property. Tenants need reliable, affordable and increasingly cleaner space. C-PACE sits at the intersection of those needs, and the companion question, covered in ChargedUp!'s reporting on why Colorado commercial solar still lags, is whether financing alone can move a market that is really being held back by project coordination.
The next question is whether Colorado can build the connective tissue around the tool it already has, whether that comes from program leadership, contractors, capital providers, lenders, CPAs or a new class of C-PACE project integrators. The title matters less than the function. Someone has to help owners answer the real question: not simply "Can C-PACE finance this?" but "What building improvements reduce operating risk, improve asset value, support tenants and create enough measurable benefit to justify the assessment?" Colorado does not lack the capital tool. The opportunity now is to make the market better at using it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is C-PACE?
Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy financing, known as C-PACE, lets eligible commercial, industrial, multifamily, agricultural and nonprofit property owners finance energy efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation, resilience and, in Colorado, embodied carbon improvements through private capital. Repayment runs through a voluntary special assessment on the property tax bill rather than a conventional loan.
How is a C-PACE assessment repaid?
Participating counties collect the assessment through the standard property tax collection system and remit those payments to the Colorado New Energy Improvement District or its fiduciary, which distributes funds to the private capital provider that financed the project. Terms can extend up to 25 years, and the assessment can transfer with the property if it sells.
Can C-PACE work in a building where the tenant pays the utility bill?
It can, but only if the lease allows the assessment to pass through as an operating expense. In triple-net leases where tenants already pay property taxes, that pass-through is often straightforward. In gross leases, the owner and tenant need to work out how the assessment and the resulting savings get allocated before the project moves forward.
What is PACE Express?
PACE Express is Colorado C-PACE's streamlined pathway for smaller projects, typically single-measure or simple multi-measure improvements with a total financed amount under $500,000. It reduces fees and transaction complexity for projects too small to justify the underwriting effort a larger deal requires.
Sources
Colorado General Assembly: SB25-182 Fiscal Note
Colorado New Energy Improvement District: About NEID and Colorado C-PACE
Colorado New Energy Improvement District: PACE Express, small project financing
C-PACE Alliance: 2024 National C-PACE Program Volume Data
Interview Sources
Jason Bonanno, executive director of market development, Colorado C-PACE, interview with ChargedUp!, August 2026.
David Henry, co-owner and senior director of commercial business development, Namaste Solar, interview with ChargedUp!, Aug. 13, 2026.
Rachel Mountain, co-owner and director of commercial sales, Namaste Solar, interview with ChargedUp!, Aug. 13, 2026.
Jason Sharpe, CEO and co-owner, Namaste Solar, interview with ChargedUp!, July 2026.
