2025 Market Optimism and C-PACE Enthusiasm at CREFC Miami

PLG originators Robbie Pinkas, Matthew McCormack, Jerry Ellis, and VP of Capital Markets Eizaan Khan attended this year’s CRE Finance Council January meeting in Miami, where lenders and brokers from across the U.S. met to discuss attitudes and development outlook for the new year.

“There was generally a lot more positivity surrounding this year’s CRE landscape in comparison to 2024,” SVP of Originations Robbie Pinkas said after attending CREFC Miami. “I’m optimistic that developers will take their projects off of the side lines as they realize the current rates are here to stay.”

During the conference, C-PACE financing was the main topic of many discussions. Prior to the conference, CREFC published a C-PACE primer, showing that the long-term, fixed-rate financing tool is gaining traction among CRE professionals.

“I heard lots of interest in C-PACE at the conference. PACE continues to make deals work and the industry is taking notice,” Khan said.

Primarily, PLG is seeing PACE being used in today’s markets to a) blend down cost of capital by subbing out expensive senior debt, b) pay down maturing debt by retroactively recapturing capital from the last 1-3 years, and c) replace A-notes by working as a quasi-participant in the tight lending market.

“Many of the debt funds I met with expressed willingness to work alongside PACE,” McCormack said. “As rates remain high, more and more lenders are realizing the value of PACE as a participant, which allows them to keep lending while reducing their exposure.”

 

Main conference takeaways:

• The CRE industry is optimistic for the 2025 market

• Interest in C-PACE continues to build as bigger deals get done

• C-PACE is being used today to:

  • Blend down cost of capital

  • Refinance completed improvements to pay off maturing debt

  • Act as a participant in today's competitive lending environment

• More debt funds are agreeing to work alongside C-PACE as they realize its value in supplementing mortgage debt