NORWOOD — General Manager Tony Mazzucco is pleased to announce that the Town of Norwood will participate in the MassDevelopment Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Program.
On Tuesday, April 6, the Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to participate in the PACE Program.
The program is administered by MassDevelopment and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. It allows participating municipalities to finance energy improvements on commercial and industrial properties in the town.
“I am thrilled to see positive changes like this happening in our town,” said Selectman David Hajjar. “We hope to see many benefits, such as job creation and business growth, as a result of this program while we simultaneously help the environment and work to reduce our energy use.”
To finance energy improvements, a property owner agrees to a betterment assessment and lien on their property, which repays the financing. This enables owners to implement low-cost, long-term funding for energy improvements with longer payback periods of up to 20 years.
At property sale, the assessment stays with the property and is transferred to the new property owners.
Properties eligible for financing through PACE include commercial buildings, industrial buildings, multi-family buildings with five or more units and buildings owned by a nonprofit organization. Eligible improvements may include energy efficiency upgrades, renewable energy projects and the extension of existing natural gas distribution to a property.
“We are looking forward to participating in this innovative program,” said General Manager Mazzucco. “I would like to give special thanks to the town’s Management Analyst Joe Collins for his hard work in driving this initiative forward over the past few months.”
“Norwood has joined an elite group of communities in the Commonwealth that have this special development tool for getting good projects completed through low-cost, long-term financing,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Dan Rivera. “PACE helps the developer’s and property owner’s budgets, the town’s development goals, and Massachusetts’ goals around renewables and clean energy – a win, win, win! We look forward to helping commercial property owners in the community utilize the program.”
To be approved for PACE Massachusetts financing, interested property owners must complete and submit a project application. Click here for more information.
Norwood joins 40 Massachusetts municipalities that have opted into the program as of March.
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