ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Florida PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) Funding Agency has announced that it has secured up to $500 million in funding through Samas Capital, LLC (Samas) to provide business and residential property owners with financing for energy-related and wind-hardening improvements in counties that choose to participate. Samas has engaged RBC Capital Markets as structuring agent in the context of this PACE funding program.
Florida PACE Funding Agency was established as a special purpose unit of local government to provide voluntary, low-cost financing to property owners for energy efficiency, renewable energy and wind resistance improvements. Improvements are to be repaid over time by property owners through a voluntary special assessment added onto the owner’s property tax bill. The Florida PACE Funding Agency has the legal authority to issue $2 billion in bonds for the purpose of funding property improvements, without liability, to any subscribing county or city.
“By using the Agency’s innovative interlocal subscription model, local governments will be able to quickly and easily implement a PACE program without burdening local government staff and without incurring uncertain and enormous costs and liabilities associated with a stand-alone program,” said Mike Steigerwald, Executive Director for Florida PACE Funding Agency. “For property owners, this will mean expedited access to funds for protection of their properties from Florida’s hurricanes, mitigation of rising energy costs through energy efficiency improvements, and increases in property value related to the improvements.”
Just as important, this breakthrough in access to funding for qualifying property improvements is expected to quickly strengthen Florida’s economy through materials supply and private sector construction job creation.
Florida PACE Funding Agency’s program is entirely voluntary and is available only in subscribing counties and municipalities. Subscription is accomplished by resolution of the county or city commission and a short interlocal agreement, the form of which has been judicially validated. The Agency expects to begin funding within the next 60 days.
Samas has been active with PACE financings in California and will bring that knowledge and expertise to Florida property owners through the Agency’s scalable statewide program.
“We are honored to have been selected by the Florida PACE Funding Agency for this statewide effort,” said Mark Aarvig, Managing Director of Samas Capital. “We believe that the Agency will benefit from a structure that has proven its capacity to fund these assessment-secured loans through a scalable consistent model.”
Samas was selected through a comprehensive, yearlong public procurement process coordinated by the Agency and recommended collectively by the Agency’s Administrator, SAIC; Special/Bond Counsel, Bryant Miller Olive; and the Financial Advisory Team of First Southwest Company, Public Financial Management and Southeastern Investment Securities.
“We are proud to be an integral part of the Florida PACE Funding Agency team and look forward to providing the best and lowest cost PACE financing to Florida. Our investors are impressed with the uniformity and statewide scale of the Agency’s inviting interlocal model,” said Mark Aarvig, Principal at Samas Capital, commented. “We also like the way the Agency is geared to help counties and cities quickly launch these job creation opportunities. Through an emphasis on local vendor participation we believe that there will be significant interest in this Program from property owners that will engage improvement contractors of their choice. We look forward to helping Florida’s local governments accomplish the steps of implementing a PACE program, in order to quickly get this funding to the state’s homeowners and commercial property owners.”
For more information about subscribing to the program, contact Project Manager Jonathan Schaefer at (866) 558-3180 or schaeferj@floridapace.gov.
About Florida PACE Funding Agency
The Florida PACE Funding Agency is a special purpose local government formed by the collaborative efforts of Flagler County and the City of Kissimmee, Florida. The Agency was created by local governments in order to create the most transparent and accountable means of providing financing to residential and non-residential property owners for qualifying energy efficiency, renewable generation and wind-resistance improvements. Subscription by any Florida county or city to the Agency’s funding program was intentionally created to be without liability or cost to counties or cities who desire the benefits and economic development resulting from the Program. The Agency is administered by SAIC Energy, Environment & Infrastructure, a subsidiary of SAIC (SAI, NYSE), who was also selected by a competitive public procurement process. SAIC is one of the world’s largest corporate concerns focusing on third party administration of energy savings programs. For more information, please visit floridapace.gov.
About Samas Capital
Samas Capital is a premier international financial innovator, originator, and asset manager of structured products. The company principals have a wealth of experience in asset-backed securities origination, trading, and securitization. Samas Capital provides innovative financing solutions and origination processes by structuring financial products that bridge the gap to the capital markets. Samas Capital has a demonstrated ability to employ securitization and issuer methodologies to fund and invest in stable and predictable long-term cash flows. The strong PACE program put in place by the Agency, coupled with the funding solution provided by Samas, promises to open an exciting new market that will immediately spur economic activity in each subscribing community. For more information, please visit samascapital.com.