PHARR, Texas - Dub Taylor is COO of Texas PACE Authority, a nonprofit that can provide long term, cost-effective financing for energy and water efficiency improvements to commercial properties.
PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy.
Taylor recently spoke at an event hosted jointly by the Pharr Economic Development Corporation and the Rio Grande Valley Partnership. Titled the Pharr Commercial & Investment Summit, the event was held at the Pharr One Center.
At the event, Taylor gave a presentation that included slides showing where a PACE financing project had worked in Texas. There were lots of examples shown in East Texas, the Panhandle and Central Texas. But there were no examples from the Texas-Mexico border region. The nearest were in San Antonio.
In an interview with the Rio Grande Guardian, Taylor after his presentation, Taylor said that is why he was in Pharr - to spread the word about the benefits.
“So, a lot of it has been a concentration of activities in some of the other urban markets, with lenders, property developers, etc. And PACE is not yet recognized as really a good tool in the toolkit in the Valley. And so we're helping change that, working with the EDC here, obviously in Pharr with the COG, with the county and with others,” Taylor said.
COG stands for Council of Government. The Valle’s COG is the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council.
The PACE website states: "Property Assessed Clean Energy (TX-PACE) is a proven financial tool that incentivizes Texas’ property owners to upgrade facility infrastructure with little or no capital outlay. Approved by State legislation and established by local governments, TX-PACE programs enable owners to lower their operating costs and use the savings to pay for eligible water conservation, energy efficiency, resiliency, and distributed generation projects. Owners gain access to private, affordable, long-term (typically 20-30 years) financing that is not available through traditional funding avenues."
Taylor told the Guardian: “We administer PACE financing programs for over 100 cities and counties across the state, including Hidalgo County, Cameron and Willacy County. This program has been operational for about six or seven years, and we are working with different stakeholder groups in the Valley to create awareness. PACE can provide long term financing for energy and water efficient improvements to commercial facilities. And there's tremendous opportunity in the Valley.”
Taylor continued: “So, PACE can provide long term, cost-effective financing for energy and water efficiency improvements to commercial properties. So this means you can have lower operating costs. You can replace aging equipment, heating ventilation, air conditioning, equipment, pumps, motors, electrical all of this, and you can secure long term financing that makes those decisions and makes those investments cost effective.”
Here is an audio recording of Taylor’s presentation at the Pharr event.
And here is a video recording of the Guardian's interview with Taylor:
For more information go to: texaspaceauthority.org
