Chicago PACE, a program of the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, announced today that it has closed $4.6 million in Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) funding in support of completed energy efficiency work at the recently opened Amped Kitchens Chicago facility in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood.
“The Chicago PACE program funding helps Amped recoup the portion of our investment capital that we dedicated to achieving our energy efficiency goals,” said Mott Smith, co-founder of Amped Kitchens.
“Those efficiencies not only keep our costs down long term, they allow us to better support the entrepreneurs and food manufacturers that bring their businesses to Amped Kitchens Chicago,” added Amped Co-founder Brian Albert.
“Together we have created a new center for food entrepreneurship and job creation in the 29th Ward that will give local businesses a solid pathway to build upon their success,” said local Alderman Chris Taliaferro. “With the Chicago PACE Program, we have demonstrated a commitment to sustainable and energy-efficient building in the City of Chicago,” he continued.
“We’re thankful to be able to align private capital behind a project such as Amped Kitchens because it has such a positive impact on the community,” said Jana Wesley, managing director of Loop-Counterpointe PACE. “They created an energy-efficient manufacturing facility, plus they are supporting entrepreneurship by removing many of the obstacles that food industry professionals face in scaling their businesses.”
The $4.6 million in private funding through the Chicago PACE program was provided by CounterpointeSRE, a national C-PACE capital provider, and was earmarked to a long list of energy efficiency improvements that included new HVAC consisting of packaged RTUs, hoods, water heaters, and indirect fired gas furnaces as well as LED lighting at the 5801 W Dickens Ave. facility. The Chicago PACE program, a public-private partnership designed to fund energy-saving and renewable infrastructure improvements to commercial and multifamily properties, is administered by Loop-Counterpointe PACE LLC, a joint venture between Loop Capital Markets and Counterpointe Sustainable Real Estate.
Amped Kitchens Chicago began its work in 2019 to convert a former Zenith television factory into a 113,000-square-foot facility with 64 kitchens for lease to food manufacturers ranging from mom-and-pop operations to large corporate brands. The initial development was financed with new markets tax credits (NMTCs), including a bridge component that was refinanced with PACE capital. Finance sources included Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Chicago Community Loan Fund, BlueHub Capital, PNC Bank, Southside Community Optimal Redevelopment Enterprise, Consortium America and FirstPathway Partners.
Pepper Construction was the general contractor.
Amped Kitchens Chicago is the company’s third food production facility and the first outside of Los Angeles. Amped Kitchens has provided long-term production space to some of the nation’s most innovative and successful food brands, including Beyond Meat, Halo Top Creamery, Applebees and Blue Bottle Coffee, among others.
To inquire about using Chicago PACE for your commercial real estate project, please visit ChicagoPACE.org/inquiry.
