A Primer on Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing:
National C-PACE Guide
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Mary-Stuart Freydberg is a Managing Director at Counterpointe Sustainable Advisors and serves as Head of Research and Sustainability.
Ms. Freydberg, Managing Director, heads Research and Sustainability and oversees the firm’s sustainable investment framework. Prior to Counterpointe, Ms. Freydberg was Senior Director at Merrill Lynch, where she advised the trading desk, sales, and institutional investors in commercial mortgage-backed securities. While Ms. Freydberg was a CMBS Strategist, ML was consistently ranked a top CMBS Research team by Institutional Investor. At Fitch IBCA, Mary-Stuart rated new issue CMBS and headed research and surveillance, covering over $100 billion in issuance. In addition, Ms. Freydberg brings extensive construction loan lending, work-out, and special servicer experience from prior roles and while at J.E. Roberts Co., now the Archon Group, and its joint venture with Goldman Sachs. Mary-Stuart has published extensively and has been a featured speaker on many panels, both domestically and internationally.
Eric Alini is the Chief Executive Officer of Counterpointe Sustainable Advisors with its various subsidiaries and Managing Partner of Counterpointe Energy Partners.
Prior to founding Counterpointe, Mr. Alini was Managing Director at Merrill Lynch in the Principal Finance Group of Global Structured Finance and Investment. In this role, he managed Merrill Lynch’s internal capital, responsible for investing and risk management of over $21 billion. In addition, Mr. Alini managed Merrill Lynch Bank USA’s portfolio of asset-backed securities and held senior positions in Global Corporate Loan Portfolio Management, CMBS trading, and as Head of International CMBS. Also at Merrill Lynch, Mr. Alini was an executive producer for several film projects including The Stanford Prison Project and Ride and structured financing for multiple media companies including Paramount Studios, Ivan Reitman’s Monticello Pictures, and the launch of Marvel Studios.
Mr. Alini started his career as a corporate bond trader at Bear Stearns and has served in government for the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC). He is a board member of PACENation and the USGBC chapter in New York City Urban Green.
J. Chris Hoeffel is President and Chief Operating Officer of Counterpointe Sustainable Advisors with its various subsidiaries.
Christopher Hoeffel was most recently Co-Founder and President of CoreVest (previously Colony American Finance), the leading private lender to residential investors nationwide; he was directly responsible for underwriting, capital markets, finance and asset management. CoreVest was a leading player in the SFR capital markets and was acquired by Redwood Trust in 2019; Chris subsequently served as a Managing Director of Redwood and as a member of the Investment Committee.
Chris was previously a Managing Director at Investcorp, where he was Head of Real Estate Debt Investments and also Head of Investment Operations and Investor Relations for Real Estate and Corporate Investments in the US and Europe. Mr. Hoeffel joined Investcorp from JP Morgan / Bear Stearns & Co. where he was a Senior Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Commercial Mortgages and founder of a leading Wall Street lending operation in the US, Europe and Japan. Mr. Hoeffel had previous positions at Eastdil Realty, Chemical Bank and the mortgage banking firm Walker & Dunlop.
Chris is a former President of the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association (now CREFC) and serves on its Executive Committee. He has also held leadership positions at the Mortgage Bankers Association and was a member of the Real Estate Roundtable. Mr. Hoeffel holds a BS in Business Administration from Georgetown University and an MBA from the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.
Kyle Geoghegan is a Managing Director, Head of Real Estate Originations at Counterpointe Sustainable Real Estate.
He joins the firm with over 30 years of experience originating and managing commercial real estate finance investments. Just prior to CounterpointeSRE, Kyle was responsible for all aspects of originations at Avrio, a newly formed debt fund specializing in high leverage bridge and construction products for multifamily and commercial loans across the U.S. He was also heavily involved in the capital formation effort, including Avrio’s discretionary fund along with SMA account management. Previously, Kyle helped Trez Capital create a national bridge lending platform resulting in production of over $800 million of loans in its first year. Kyle was integral to setting strategic direction including origination strategy, referral and incentive programs, credit approval process, underwriting standards, closing procedures, consultant selection, financing relationships, portfolio and asset management, and servicing. From 2006 until 2020, Kyle set up and co-managed the commercial real estate loan production operation for Resource Real Estate Funding, Inc. (“RREF”), a subsidiary of Resource America, which was purchased by C-III Capital in 2016. Kyle was responsible for all facets of transaction origination, structuring, closing, portfolio management, and strategic direction for the platform which originated over $6 billion during his tenure.
Kyle received a B.A. in Economics from Emory University where he was inducted into the Emory Sports Hall of Fame and selected for the All-Time 25 Year Team for his efforts on the basketball court. He completed his education with a Master of Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University with an emphasis in Real Estate and Finance.
James Conopask is a Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Credit for Counterpointe Sustainable Advisors.
Previously, Mr. Conopask was Head of Commercial Real Estate Debt at Good Hill Partners, LP, a multi-strategy, fixed-income hedge fund. In this role, he sourced CRE debt investments and managed a high-yield structured debt book which included mezzanine and whole loans, subordinate CMBS and CRE CLO’s. Prior to Good Hill, Mr. Conopask was a Senior Managing Director and Head of Institutional Clients / Large Loan at Bear Stearns & Co. While at Bear Stearns, he managed over $20 billion of CMBS financings across all asset types and including 14 public-to-private real estate companies. Mr. Conopask has also held positions at Summer Street Advisors, JP Morgan and Jones Lang Wootton Realty Advisors.
Rebecca Gorsky is the General Counsel of Counterpointe Sustainable Advisors.
Prior to joining Counterpointe, Ms. Gorsky served as Associate General Counsel at King Street Capital Management, L.P. in New York. In this role, Ms. Gorsky led legal operations for U.S. real estate equity and debt investments and was instrumental in the formation and launch of King Street’s real estate funds and co-investment vehicles.
Previously, Ms. Gorsky was a senior associate in the real estate group of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York, where she worked with a broad array of clients on commercial real estate transactions.
Ms. Gorsky graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a J.D. from Duke University School of Law.
Douglas Harmon is a Managing Director at Counterpointe Sustainable Real Estate.
Mr. Harmon brings decades of finance experience to CounterpointeSRE to focus on transitional and rehab investments with mortgage and bridge lending. Prior to CounterpointeSRE, Mr. Harmon served as a Managing Director at Arden Group as Portfolio Manager of the Arden Credit Fund. Doug focused on bridge and permanent lending as an Executive Vice President with A10 Capital, a commercial real estate lending platform for middle-market borrowers throughout the United States. At RBS Securities, Mr. Harmon was a Managing Director as a senior originator and co-headed the Leveraged Capital Markets effort. During his tenure at RBS, Doug originated and syndicated in excess of $1 billion of commercial real estate loans. Preceding RBS, Doug was head of the commercial real estate syndication platform for KeyBank and was co-head of the Mortgage Desk for European commercial real estate platform at Merrill Lynch.
Mr. Harmon earned a B.A. from Colgate University and an M.B.A. from Kellogg School of Management – Northwestern University.
Michele Pitale, M.D. is a Managing Director and heads principle transactions and retrofit commercial PACE transactions.
She leads Counterpointe’s team focused on commercial PACE financing with a focus on new construction development, transitional and rehab investments. Dr. Pitale provides an expertise in deep energy retrofits and a passion for advancing projects with community benefits that provide accretive economics for owners. She serves as liaison to the Department of Energy Better Buildings and the National Academy of Medicine as part of its Climate Collaborative.
Prior to focusing on sustainable energy finance, Dr. Pitale practiced medicine as an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Otolaryngology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and as a surgeon at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, NIAID in Bethesda, MD and has authored surgical chapters in textbooks and a number of peer-reviewed research articles.. Dr. Pitale earned a BS in chemistry from Juniata College and holds an M.D. from Temple University in Pennsylvania.
Bernard Bartolome brings more than 20 years of financial and business process management experience. He has spent years in the residential lending arenas of Processing, Underwriting, Servicing, and Insuring. Bernard achieved his firsthand experience in process optimization while spearheading the design and implementation of standard operating procedures, streamlining processes through development of operational and business policies and automation of processes at Digital Risk from 2007 until 2015.
Terry Stark is an Executive Director and is responsible for business development and origination. Located in Southwest Florida, Terry brings an extensive financial background to the PACE team. Terry previously spent over 15 years with PNC Bank in the St. Louis, MO market running the Business Banking division in St. Louis and Southern Illinois. Terry also worked with the City of St. Louis on the creation of their Property Assessed Clean Energy program. His drive helped the program come to life with PNC Bank as the lender. After relocating to the Ft. Myers market in SW Florida, he continues to open doors to new markets and new opportunities for PACE to shine whether a client is doing a retrofit or new construction project.
Devesh Nirmul is a leader within the energy, sustainability and resiliency space with demonstrated experience in government and public policy, residential and commercial real estate/property management and sustainability-focused non-profit organizations. He works on expanding the PACE Market in Florida, creating value-driven financing solutions for commercial building ownerships and their trusted advisors and engages relevant non-profit organizations on the strategic use of PACE financing to accelerate the uptake of energy and resiliency investments amongst private building owners. Devesh brings a mix of science, policy, and strategy to the firm and sustains his effectiveness by maintaining globally recognized industry credentials. He is an accredited LEED AP, a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and a Certified Sustainable Development Professional (CSDP).