Montana Last Best PACE financing

History and local availability

The program guide dates the enabling act to 2021 and the Last Best PACE launch to 1 January 2022. Senate Bill 458 expanded eligible public-safety and resilience work effective 1 October 2025. The current guide is version 2.0 with that effective date. Local district creation is still required; statewide administration does not make every parcel eligible. MFFA guide

Montana's 2025 code places the framework in Title 90, Chapter 4, Part 13. Section 90-4-1304 authorizes local districts and third-party financing. Confirm the property's district using the official map and administrator before obtaining a financing commitment. Current code, program authority, Commerce district map

Eligible property and work

The statutory definition covers privately owned commercial, industrial, agricultural and qualifying multifamily property. Multifamily requires at least five residential units, each with a full bathroom and complete kitchen; rental and owner-occupied configurations are addressed. Energy and water conservation, renewable energy and public-safety/resilience improvements have separate definitions. New construction can qualify, but each measure still needs review. MCA 90-4-1302

Consent and repayment

The guide requires written consent from existing mortgage or other real-property lien holders before closing, including recorded subordination documentation. It permits fixed-rate or constrained variable-rate structures; no blanket fixed-rate or no-personal-guarantee promise should be made. Guide, sections 2.5 and 3.2

Section 90-4-1307 links assessment duration to project useful life and creates a lien that runs with the property, with the status of property-tax and assessment liens. Installments ordinarily appear on tax bills, but a generally applicable local special-assessment ordinance can provide another billing arrangement. Delinquency carries the local government's property-tax remedies. A sale does not itself remove the lien. Current assessment provision

Application sequence

Confirm the district, property and project; arrange the required technical analysis and registered professionals; select a willing private capital provider; obtain lien-holder consents; complete MFFA review and closing documents; then record the assessment and required consent documents. Compare interest, program/lender fees, prepayment, construction obligations and sale/refinance consequences rather than assuming assessment financing is automatically preferable. Program guide, closing documentation

Documented Montana project

MFFA's 2022 annual review reports a closed C-PACE financing for Bridger Brewing / Headwaters Water and Sewer District in Broadwater County, near Three Forks. It describes a private water/sewer system and lists $1,750,000 Series A plus $3,774,420 Series B—$5,524,420 combined, rounded to $5.5 million in the narrative. Series A closed on May 20, 2022, and Series B closed on July 18, 2022. These are financing closing dates, not construction-completion or commissioning dates. Its water and cost savings are forward-looking, not measured results. MFFA annual review, pp. 2 and 6–7

Local verification: district, above-code work and resilience

Confirm the property's adopted district through the Commerce map and MFFA; do not infer coverage from statewide administration. The October 2025 guide includes seismic integrity, wind/fire/flood resistance, outage tolerance and stormwater controls among public-safety/resilience measures. It is not a property-specific hazard assessment. District map, Current guide

The guide requires new-construction improvements to exceed the minimum building codes adopted by Montana and supporting above-code documentation. The project team must still establish the parcel's permit authority, current adopted requirements and technical evidence. No county-by-county adoption chronology, wildfire/flood eligibility map or parcel-specific permit determination has been verified here. Guide, section 3.3.1a

Additional verification limits

Items requiring further confirmation: Current 2025 legislature-hosted MCA Title 90 Chapter 4 Part 13 and guide read; electronic edition disclaimer retained. District chronology, construction-completion/commissioning and measured savings, above-code documentation and local permits; old 4-unit language superseded by current 5-unit rule.

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.