Global investment firm Carlyle has announced a strategic investment in North Bridge ESG LLC, a real estate finance solutions provider, along with a commitment of up to $1 billion to support the origination of commercial property-assessed clean energy (C-PACE) loans. The partnership combines Carlyle’s expertise in strategic growth, real estate, and asset-backed finance with North Bridge’s established position in the C-PACE market to address expanding market needs.
North Bridge specialises in C-PACE financing, a fixed-rate funding mechanism secured by local property assessments, which is increasingly popular for its flexibility and enhancement of commercial real estate capital structures. C-PACE loans are used for projects such as new construction, renovations, acquisitions, and even recapitalisation.
“Carlyle’s $1B commitment to C-PACE, the largest to date, enables North Bridge to lead the transformation of the industry to better meet the needs of institutional sponsors and their lenders. We are excited to partner with Carlyle, an established leader in the private credit space, given their exceptional track record of partnering with companies to drive growth,” said Laura Rapaport, Founder and CEO of North Bridge.
Akhil Bansal, Head of Credit Strategic Solutions at Carlyle said, “We are pleased to bring together Carlyle’s significant expertise in asset backed finance and real estate credit to help commercial real estate owners address their financing needs. North Bridge has a proven capability to deliver C-PACE financing solutions of substantial size to borrowers and sponsors, and we are excited to partner with them to drive growth in an increasingly important financing market.”
“Our partnership with North Bridge, a leader in providing capital market solutions to commercial real estate owners, allows us to further meet the financing demands facing the industry. Banks have pulled back from commercial real estate lending due to concentration risk in the sector, resulting in a dynamic that we believe should yield attractive relative value opportunities for C-PACE lenders with capital to deploy today, said Rachel King, a principal focused on opportunistic real estate credit at Carlyle.
This transaction was jointly managed by Carlyle’s Credit Strategic Solutions (CSS) and Private Credit teams, with Paul Hastings LLP serving as Carlyle’s legal advisor, and Latham & Watkins LLP and Chapman and Cutler LLP advising North Bridge.