125 Maiden Lane

NYCEEC closed its first financing transaction in November, 2011.  For this pilot transaction, NYCEEC provided credit enhancement capital to assist Transcend Equity (an energy services company) to assemble a financing package for a MESA contract that permitted an older, Class B office building to undertake critical energy retrofit measures. Download the case study brochure here.

The Building

125 Maiden Lane is a 320,000 square foot commercial condominium office building located in Lower Manhattan. The building is home to several local and international non-profits including the US Fund for UNICEF, the Guttmacher Institute for Women’s Reproductive Health, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Consulate General of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Financing

The availability of $950,000 in third party financing for the project was made possible by a $190,000 credit enhancement facility funded by NYCEEC. The retrofits, which will include an automated building management system as well as a variety of other mechanical and electrical energy efficiency controls and components, are expected to save the building 24 percent in total energy usage.

The Approach

The project benefits from an innovative energy efficiency financing structure called a Managed Energy Services Agreement (MESA), and is led by Transcend Equity Development Corporation and its joint venture partner, Mitusi and Co (USA), Inc.  This financing structure allows the building’s owners to occupy a greener, more efficient building at no additional cost to them.  Savings from the energy efficiency retrofits will be used to pay for the financing costs.  This is the first time the MESA structure has been used in a New York City building.

The MESA is one of several innovative retrofit financing approaches that NYCEEC is advancing to achieve its mission of supporting New York City’s energy and climate action goals by catalyzing an energy efficiency retrofit financing market for private building owners.