District of Columbia C-PACE

Current position

Active District-wide program; DC Green Bank is the current administrator. DC PACE finances qualifying building projects through private capital and a special property assessment. It is not a grant. DC Green Bank took over administration on October 1, 2021. Legacy directories naming DOEE or Urban Ingenuity alone are stale for the accountable organization. DC Green Bank program · DOEE transition notice

Background and history

Current statutory chapter · Official pilot/launch chronology · FY2025 annual report · Geneva announcement

Responsible organizations

DC Green Bank, legally the District's Green Finance Authority, administers the program. The 2018 establishment law expressly authorizes it to administer the energy-efficiency loan program. DOEE and Urban Ingenuity are important to program creation and early delivery; neither should replace DC Green Bank in the current administrator field. Registered private capital providers finance transactions. The District's assessment and tax machinery handles repayment. Green Finance Authority law · Program resources and capital-provider registration

Published program contact: dcpace@dcgreenbank.com; 202-301-8300. The current official Geneva release names Brandi Colander as DC Green Bank CEO. Avoid substituting former CEOs from older case-study quotations. Program flyer · 2026 release

Eligibility and geographic reach

The program serves properties within the District of Columbia, not adjoining Maryland or Virginia. The current linked flyer lists office, institutional, multifamily, industrial and nonprofit properties. It identifies energy efficiency, renewable energy, water/stormwater conservation, mechanical/HVAC, lighting, envelope, solar/cogeneration, engineering, audit and related soft costs. The program website includes both upgrades and high-performance new construction. Program flyer · Program overview

Do not infer a currently available consumer residential product from the broad residential language in the statute. Project-specific property-unit thresholds, loan-to-value tests, retrofit/new-construction technical standards and currently permitted term require the live program approval packet. Older web copy and the linked flyer use different term descriptions; this draft intentionally does not publish a universal current maximum.

Consent, assessment, transfer and implementation

The property owner consents to the special assessment in the loan agreement. A memorandum is recorded in District land records; principal, interest and administrative charges are collected through the assessment. The statutory framework requires transfer disclosure and preserves subsequent owners' payment obligations even if disclosure was missed. If an owner increases rents to pay the assessment, the law requires passing energy savings to the affected tenants. Assessment delinquency carries real-property-tax-style consequences. D.C. Code §§47-895.31–35

The practical sequence published by DC Green Bank is eligibility screening, scope definition, application, financing approval/funding, then building improvements. Assessments attach to the property and transfer with title. Obtain written mortgage-lender approval and the administrator's current consent form before treating a mortgaged project as financeable; the current authoritative consent/priority packet was not recovered in this pass, so the precise current lien treatment should be verified in closing documents rather than represented as an unqualified guarantee. Program flyer

Known projects

Sources: Geneva official release · Geneva lender release/address and unit mix · Closing timing update · Audi Field case · Canal House release · School case/flyer

Local applicability, resilience and code/permit checks

DC is one District-wide jurisdiction, not a collection of county opt-ins. Nevertheless parcel location and project scope change permit requirements. DC Green Bank financing review is separate from Department of Buildings (DOB) and DOEE approval. Projects in regulated floodplains require documentation to both agencies and approval under flood-hazard rules and construction codes. Stormwater eligibility in a PACE flyer is not proof that a specific flood-resilience measure or project is approved. DOEE floodplain permit process

DOB's current energy/green-building page distinguishes current requirements from upcoming January 1, 2027 changes for certain privately owned projects. It describes all-electric heating/hot-water and 2024-IECC-equivalent requirements by new-construction/addition/alteration category, with documented transitional treatment for qualifying pre-December 31, 2026 design contracts. It also identifies the 2017 Green Construction Code for buildings at least 10,000 square feet. These rules must be matched to project type and permit/design dates; they are not one blanket requirement for every C-PACE retrofit. DOB current requirements and transition

For a live property record the applicable energy/green-building path, historic/zoning and flood/stormwater reviews, permit dates and commissioning obligations. The new 2027 construction-code package is described by DOB as anticipated effective January 2028, not already in force. No parcel-specific permit determination is supplied here.

Next steps and exact gaps

1. Obtain the current DC PACE program guidelines, technical standards, mortgage consent, priority/enforcement provisions and term/fee schedule. Two indexed official guideline PDF URLs returned 404 during this research (v2.2 July-28 and v2.5 4.22.44). Do not silently cite inaccessible legacy guidance as current rules.
2. Verify the current debt-cap law before quoting any cap: the code index references a December 2025 emergency amendment and March 24, 2026 temporary amendment. An old $250 million figure is not safe as a current limit. This draft makes no current-cap claim.
3. Obtain a post-FY2025 transaction roll-up rather than adding selective press releases to historical totals; exact October 2026 cumulative volume/count is not established.
4. Verify construction completion, unit mix and measured performance separately from financing closes. No projected savings, marketing cash-flow claims or fixed rates are guaranteed here.

Continue your project research

Compare the national C-PACE financing structure; Organize state and local project requirements; Prepare a commercial-building improvement scope. This page provides guidance only; it does not accept an application or submit information to a provider.