NYCEEC’s Scalable Green Predevelopment Loan Product

Organization Name: New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation (NYCEEC)

Project Title: NYCEEC’s Scalable Green Predevelopment Loan Product

Project Location: New York City (citywide)

Project Description:
Over its 15-year history, NYCEEC has identified a persistent gap in financing for the development and retrofit of high-quality, sustainable affordable housing. Predevelopment financing is essential for covering early-stage architectural, engineering, energy efficiency, and electrification costs before construction begins. Yet traditional lenders often avoid these loans because they are typically unsecured, smaller in size, and short-term. Without this financing, developers may either remove sustainability measures from projects or rely on limited, costly equity, reducing the number and scale of affordable housing developments they can undertake. To address this need, NYCEEC created its Green Predevelopment Loan, designed specifically for affordable housing developers and building owners during the predevelopment phase of construction or renovation. The product streamlines underwriting, provides flexible early-stage capital, and helps reduce project costs. Since launching in 2015, NYCEEC has closed 88 predevelopment loans, supporting more than 7,600 affordable housing units and mobilizing over $3.1 billion in affordable housing investment with just $36 million of NYCEEC capital.

Community Impact:
NYCEEC’s Green Predevelopment Loan product standardized underwriting approach reduces transaction costs, shortens time to close, and lowers reliance on scarce and expensive developer equity, helping more projects advance and increasing affordable housing supply. NYCEEC has worked with numerous affordable housing developers, supporting diverse communities in NYC, including seniors, LGBTQ residents, and extremely low income and formerly homeless resident. Often the Green Predevelopment Loan product supports affordable multifamily housing projects with co-benefits including all-electric design, Passive House certified, bioswales, cultural centers, and community services.

For example, NYCEEC provided a $4.5 million predevelopment loan to support the redevelopment of the Variety Boys & Girls Club of Queens which will include both affordable and supportive housing units, as well as a community center including a planetarium. The project will be all-electric design with rooftop solar PV and a green roof. More info can be found here: https://nyceec.com/deal-spotlight/predevelopment-financing-for-mixed-use-community-facility-and-affordable-housing-in-queens/

Organization Description:
NYCEEC is a 501(c)(3) mission driven lender, dedicated to filling market gaps for energy efficiency, clean energy, and resilience projects in communities. Founded in 2010, NYCEEC is the first local green bank in the United States. NYCEEC provides capital that is flexible and well-suited to helping building owners, contractors, developers, and affordable housing agencies. While most of NYCEEC financed projects have been in New York City and New York State, NYCEEC—in collaboration with other organizations—will lend in other states to drive outsized impact.

Team Members:

NYCEEC’s team can be found here: https://nyceec.com/our-team/. Most of NYCEEC’s team members have worked on a predevelopment loan to some degree whether it’s pre-loan closing or post.