Inland Green Capital LLC (“Inland Green Capital”), an environmental finance and investment company, announced the closing and funding of a commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (“PACE”) transaction in Oak Brook, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. Inland Green Capital was selected to refinance $2.76 million in energy efficient improvements for the luxury hotel, The Drake Oak Brook, Autograph Collection (“The Drake Hotel”), located at 2301 York Road in Oak Brook.
The funding, which closed in late August 2021, refinances new windows and building envelope elements, boilers, chillers, HVAC infrastructure improvements, water-conserving plumbing installations and LED lighting that were made from mid-2019 through mid-2021. The PACE project is expected to provide The Drake Hotel with approximately $1 million in savings over the 25-year financing term and lifetime energy savings of nearly 5.2 million kilowatt hours of electric, 340,000 therms of natural gas and more than 24 million gallons of water.
“Inland Green Capital allowed us to achieve our goal of taking a 60-year-old property and converting it to a much more high-efficiency, green hotel,” said Jim Nagle, owner of The Drake Oak Brook.
Inland Green Capital specializes in C-PACE financings for PACE project initiatives throughout the country.
“The renovation of The Drake Hotel will result in a comprehensive energy efficiency upgrade that modernizes this landmark destination and should reduce utility expenses,” said Anna Maria Kowalik, senior vice president – director of business development for Inland Green Capital. “We are thrilled to be part of this transaction in Oak Brook and look forward to many more Illinois-based PACE projects in the future.”
PACE is an innovative financing tool that provides long-term, fixed-rate funding to private building owners for energy efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation, electric vehicle charging and resiliency projects to be installed in both existing or new commercial properties. To date, the PACE program has provided financing for over 2,500 commercial projects, totaling $2 billion in funding and has created nearly 22,400 jobs nationwide.*
