Arkansas Investment Firm Leading the Way in Financing of Green Initiatives
Crews & Associates, Inc. is leading the way in financing Public Housing Authority energy performance contracts across the U.S.
- (1888PressRelease) January 29, 2011 - LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - In the President's recent State of the Union address, innovation was stressed as one of the pillars that will lead America to "win the future." President Obama also spoke of multiple energy initiatives that are in progress or will be in the near future.
One Arkansas-based investment banking firm is leading the way in innovative financing of energy performance contracts for Public Housing Authorities across the U.S.
Crews & Associates, Inc., headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas with national operations, has participated in the financing of nine Public Housing Authority energy efficiency projects, totaling over $195 million.
The firm's work in this area includes the largest Public Housing Authority energy performance contract in the U.S. to date, a $59 million project for the Boston Housing Authority. Crews' recently served as Sole Senior Manager of the San Francisco Housing Authority's $34 million energy efficiency project. Though the firm has worked with some of the largest housing authorities in the country, Crews has also financed energy performance contract projects in the $1 million range.
Crews & Associates has structured 20+ year transactions for housing authorities utilizing lease purchase financing. In many transactions that were funded in 2010, a portion of the financings qualified for the Build America Bond Subsidy (BABs) which expired at the end of 2010. The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act provided for BABs as an alternative to tax-exempt financing. The interest rate for BABs is taxable to investors and generally higher; however, the federal government reimburses 35% of the interest cost to the borrower on each payment date, typically resulting in a lower net interest rate than the traditional tax-exempt approach.
While the BABs program has expired, Hurst anticipates that there will still be a considerable amount of energy conservation projects funded in 2011 with traditional tax-financing. "Even though we have lost that program and rates have risen somewhat, we still have historically low, attractive interest rates," said Edmond Hurst, Director of Crews & Associates' Capital Markets Group. "Crews is actively seeking to fund more energy conservation projects nationally together with its traditional municipal finance business," said Hurst.
For more information on the financing of these projects, contact Edmond Hurst at (501) 978-7941 or ehurst ( @ ) crewsfs dot com or Mark Brown at (501) 978-6306, or mbrown ( @ ) crewsfs dot com
About Crews & Associates, Inc.
Little Rock-based Crews & Associates, Inc. is a full-service investment banking firm dedicated to the structuring, financing and distribution of fixed-income products nationally. Crews, founded in 1979, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Security Bancorp and has served as a managing underwriter for more than $33 billion in financings in 48 states across the country. www.crewfs.com
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