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A financing tool formerly available only to public agencies is now available to private property owners seeking building improvements in Multnomah County.

Dubbed , the program makes available long-term financing to owners of commercial, industrial and multifamily properties wishing to lower energy consumption, generate or store renewable energy, lower water consumption, create or upgrade capacity to charge electric vehicles or improve seismic resiliency. It even covers new construction projects.

PropertyFit‘s structure addresses many investment barriers by offering property owners up-front financing for up to 100 percent of the cost of eligible improvements or construction. The loan is secured by a benefit assessment lien that is repaid in annual assessment payments. The maximum term is set at the average weighted useful life of the improvements. The cost savings that result may cover all or a portion of the benefit assessment payment.

The program is a collaborative effort between Prosper Portland, Multnomah County and the Energy Trust of Oregon and supports those organizations’ goals of equity, environmental sustainability, economic development and financial sustainability, Prosper Portland project manager Amy Nagy said.

鈥淭his came out of state legislation and then went to Multnomah County, and they partnered with us due to our ability to do lending,鈥� said Nagy, who is in charge of administering PropertyFit for Prosper Portland.

PropertyFit uses the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing structure, which was authorized by the Oregon Legislature in 2015 but heretofore never used.

The first project to use PropertyFit financing is in Northeast Portland. A historic building at 110 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. will become a 162-bed hostel with a ground-floor gastropub. A seismic retrofit and energy-efficiency upgrades are in the works.

The unique elements of PropertyFit include: no out-of-pocket costs; long-term, fully amortized financing; no personal guarantees; security via a benefit assessment that automatically transfers upon sale; loan repayment in annual assessments that cannot accelerate; and financing that may substitute for higher cost mezzanine debt in new construction projects.

鈥淭he other great thing about this is the term of the financing,鈥� Nagy said. 鈥溾�� A lot of times in a construction loan you might have a five- to seven-year loan. But this can go out as long as 20 years. That’s also what makes it possible to lower the assessment on an annual basis; it doesn’t accelerate.鈥�

The program’s goal, Prosper Portland Communications Manager Shawn Uhlman said, is to allow owners to carry out improvements that in the long term save them more money than their actual cost.

鈥淚t goes back to the energy assessment or audit,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat’s where you look for savings on any project.鈥�

鈥淲e’re wanting to get as close to zero or have the savings be larger than what you borrowed,鈥� Nagy said. 鈥淪o if you have more savings than assessment you can actually make money on the deal.鈥�

The program has been in the development phase for several years to ensure it is ready for use, Uhlman said.

鈥淭his is a tool that is being used nationally,鈥� he said. 鈥淪everal other states and counties have done this and we’ve really benefited from learning from other programs. It’s great for owners who don’t have immediate access to a lot of capital to make improvements to their building.鈥�

More information about the program is available at .