Faulkner County committee hears C-PACE presentation, asks staff to draft ordinance

Jonathan Raspberry, the C-PACE administrator for the Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation, presented the updated Arkansas commercial PACE (C-PACE) program to Faulkner County justices of the peace, saying the tool could help local commercial and agricultural businesses fund energy, water and resiliency upgrades without upfront capital. "It's a private capital financing tool for qualified improvements in commercial construction," Raspberry said.

Raspberry told the committee the state first adopted PACE enabling legislation in 2013 and updated it in 2025; the Arkansas program now emphasizes capital expenditures for commercial properties. He said the financing is typically a long-term, fixed-rate loan attached to the property as a voluntary special assessment and that Arkansas has capped loan terms at 30 years. "It is a long-term loan that's attached to the property…