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10 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 2, 2025 Developer Bruce Becker used C-PACE financing to install a large-scale solar array at his 165-room Hotel Marcel in New Haven. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO states. The financing model has caught on since then, with about 40 states now permitting such loan programs. That, along with a 2017 decision to begin offering C-PACE-backed secu- rities to institutional investors, has helped fuel the company's growth. In 2021, the co-founders sold Green- works Lending for an undisclosed sum to Nuveen, a Chicago-based asset manager and subsidiary of New York financial planning firm TIAA. Following the deal, the company changed its name to Nuveen Green Capital, which is still led by Bailey (CEO) and Cooley. The company this year is marking a decade in business and currently has almost 100 employees. 'Highly attractive' The C-PACE financing market has grown significantly in recent years. In 2024 alone, over $2.4 billion in C-PACE deals took place, double the volume in 2022, according to PACENation, a nonprofit advocacy group. The industry has now reached nearly $10 billion in C-PACE transactions since 2009, which has supported over 3,500 clean energy projects, according to PACENation. C-PACE loans essentially serve as an alternative source of financing for commercial properties. They may be used to finance a variety of green proj- ects, such as installing solar panels, high-efficiency boilers, chillers and HVAC systems at commercial proper- ties and multifamily housing of at least five units. Individual projects are financed by private capital providers, such as Nuveen as well as traditional banks, according to the C-PACE Alliance, an industry trade group. The financing is secured with a By Michael Juliano mjuliano@hartfordbusiness.com J essica Bailey and Alexandra Cooley realized in the mid-2010s that a state-backed loan program for energy efficiency projects could go nationwide after seeing insa- tiable interest from borrowers and institutional investors. To say they were right might have been an understatement. Since then, the two women have started and sold a business — Green Works Lending, which has since been rebranded as Nuveen Green Capital — and originated more than $3 billion in sustainable commercial real estate financing. Bailey and Cooley, who both earned master's degrees at Yale, met in 2012 while originating loans for developers and landlords through a Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) loan program they set up at the Hartford-based Connecticut Green Bank, a quasi-public agency estab- lished in 2011 to help finance sustain- able commercial development. C-PACE makes it possible for commercial property owners to obtain low-cost, long-term financing for ener gy efficiency, water conservation and renewable energy projects. "It became really clear to both of us that there was a tremendous amount of demand (for C-PACE financing) on the building owner side, and a tremen- dous market on the investor side," said Cooley, Nuveen Green Capital's chief investment officer. "What was missing was a … private-sector platform to bring those two things together across the country, not just in Connecticut." Bailey and Cooley co-founded Green Works Lending in 2015 to set up C-PACE lending programs in other (From left) Alexandra Cooley, chief investment officer, and Jessica Bailey, CEO, are the co-founders of Nuveen Green Capital. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO AT A GLANCE Nuveen Green Capital Industry: Clean Energy Commercial Financing Top Executives: Jessica Bailey, Co-Founder & CEO; Alexandra Cooley, Chief Investment Officer & Co-Founder HQ: Darien Employees: About 100 Website: nuveen.com/greencapital Contact: 203-875-9500 Sustainable Finance With $3B in assets under management, CT-based financier takes green lending program national TOP STATES FOR C-PACE LENDING RANK STATE INVESTMENT* 1 CALIFORNIA $2.34B 2 OHIO $930M 3 TEXAS $842M 4 FLORIDA $471M 5 NEVADA $362M 6 CONNECTICUT $359M 7 MINNESOTA $334M 8 MICHIGAN $308M 9 MISSOURI $303M 10 PENNSYLVANIA $297M *The investment represents C-PACE loans provided from 2009 through Dec. 2024 | Source: PACENation