Bay Area Multifamily Fund
The Bay Area Multifamily Fund (BAM Fund) was a demonstration revolving loan fund created to support the retrofit of aging multifamily affordable buildings. The goal was to improve the environmental sustainability of older properties through energy efficiency and water conservation improvements; the resulting increase in operating cash flow would then be used to service repayment of the loan. The fund worked closely with potential borrowers to review their portfolio and provided free ‘green’ physical needs assessments and energy benchmarking. Properties that had the most potential operating savings were then further reviewed for retrofit feasibility before being underwritten. In the few years that the BAM Fund pilot existed, the fund performed 39 ‘green’ physical needs assessments and made six loans that supported the retrofit of 529 affordable residential units.
Challenges & Lessons Learned
The major challenge that arose from this product was trying to convince existing lenders to allow changes in the operating cash flow waterfall. Existing lenders were not eager to amend loan documents to allow a new loan into an upper tier position. The properties that were able to move forward with a BAM Fund loan were either those that were wholly owned by the borrower, or that were undergoing a refinance/resyndication event.
Role: Program Officer
Oversaw all operations of the loan product, including marketing, ‘green’ assessments, energy benchmarking, and savings projections
Supervised various project consultants
Managed borrower relations
Worked with lending team to underwrite and close loans
Image credits (top to bottom): Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Center (header), Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Center, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, HomeRise.