Wisconsin — C-PACE state brief

Status and history

PACE Wisconsin launched in December 2016. Its first financed project, Hotel Indigo in Madison, was announced December 29, 2017 after Dane County's 2017 adoption. That is the first project of this program, not proof of the first PACE transaction anywhere in Wisconsin. Dated administrator release.

Current responsible organizations and geography

The Wisconsin PACE Commission is the governmental program body; counties participate through a joint-powers agreement and local PACE ordinance. Slipstream is its current administrator, qualifying projects and enforcing program requirements. The old Hotel Indigo release names EFS/WECC; do not present that historical identity as the current administrator. Contact: 1-800-522-3014. Commission structure, current administrator.

The official roster includes Dane, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Brown, Racine and numerous other counties. Statewide branding is not universal parcel availability: check the current participating-community list and ordinance. The Milwaukee city route is documented separately below; county participation does not make the governing agreements interchangeable. Participating communities.

Eligibility, consent, assessment and transfer

The program covers commercial, industrial, agricultural, hospitality, qualifying nonprofit and multifamily properties with five or more units. Energy efficiency, renewables and water conservation can qualify; new construction requires additional documentation. Improvements must be permanent and have at least five years' useful life. The current owner FAQ lists retroactive financing within 30 months, subject to further requirements. Owner eligibility.

Written consent from existing mortgage lenders or other real-property lienholders is required before final application. A technical assessment, underwriting and administrator approval precede closing; loan terms/fees are transaction-specific. Mortgage lender requirements.

The owner, lender and commission execute a recorded PACE Financing and Special Charge Agreement. PACE Wisconsin normally uses direct billing rather than placing every current installment on the tax bill. A delinquent special charge becomes a lien with special-assessment priority and may enter the tax roll/collection process. This distinction matters: do not describe the program simply as an ordinary mortgage or assume the full loan immediately becomes a delinquent tax lien. Lender FAQ.

The program explains that remaining obligations can transfer with the property, subject to the sale and financing documents. Transfer explanation.

Known projects

Local applicability, resilience and permits

Milwaukee is a separate documented city route: Its program launched in 2013, with the University Club's first financing close in September 2014. City ECO provides oversight and Slipstream administers it under the posted October 3, 2024 guidelines v4.1. Current city contact: Pamela Ritger de la Rosa, Sustainability Program Manager, 414-708-7331. City history, city intake, guidelines.

Milwaukee lists green roofs, bioswales, permeable surfaces, microgrids and storage among possible measures. Its landing page also mentions permanent cisterns and rain barrels, but the posted October 3, 2024 guidelines exclude rain barrels or cisterns designed for temporary precipitation storage. Permanent installation alone is not sufficient eligibility; confirm the design and qualifying category with the administrator. City measures, guidelines §§4.2, 4.4.2 and Appendix C. The guidelines require resilience analysis against existing conditions or new-build code/zoning baselines, generally by a Wisconsin engineer/architect or approved alternative. For nonconforming floodplain buildings the analysis must certify post-project ordinance compliance and address flood-insurance-program participation. New-construction energy analysis has a 10%-above-code/prescriptive framework; confirm the exact applicable pathway and permit-date baseline rather than extrapolating it statewide. Guidelines §§4.3.4, 4.4.1–4.4.2.

Milwaukee's permit office separately applies the Wisconsin building code; historic exterior alterations require a Certificate of Appropriateness regardless of ordinary permit exemptions. Hazard exposure alone is not a financing qualification or permit. City permit checklist. Confirm whether the city or commission agreement governs a parcel; their branding, manuals and collection descriptions are not interchangeable.

VERADUCT next steps and exact gaps

Obtain the latest program manual through the authorized intake route before publishing detailed underwriting thresholds: publicly linked guidelines are dated February 1, 2022, and owner/lender FAQ descriptions of useful-life calculations differ. Verify exact statutory amendment history and reconcile the commission manual with the separately documented Milwaukee city guidelines. Direct statute retrieval was unavailable; the official administrator's manual/FAQs support the operational summary. Retrieve closing/completion records before dating Dellshire or asserting realized savings. Public 2022 manual.

Additional verification limits

Items requiring further confirmation: Commission latest manual; city versus county agreement; cistern design/category approval; direct current statute retrieval; Dellshire date.

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.