504 Loan DOUBLES: Now allows max $4 million financing for greening buildings

HuffingtonPost.com is featuring this article about how real estate investors can get up to $4 million in financing by reducing energy consumption by 10% or more (eg. conservation, efficiency technolgy) and/or by introducing green, renewable power. Considering the type of market many cities are in, buildings most suitable for a green retrofit are likely to be in demand.

Here's the article:

The Small Business Admistration has amended its existing 504 loan program, which was originally created to encourage small- to medium-sized business owners to acquire commercial property by providing them with long-term, fixed-rate financing. One of the biggest accommodations is that these loans required a minimal equity requirement and the size of the loan correlates directly to the borrower's impact on the community, including revitilizing and stimulating local business, improving and diversifying the district, and expanding a minority-, woman-, or veteran-owned business.

The new loan program has now been doubled to a maximum of $4 million to borrowers who reduce energy consumption by 10 percent or generate renewable energy. This opens up whole new avenues to businesses that focus on sustainable design, reduce energy consumption, and promote renewable energy generation. This is where some of the federal government's stimulus programs' rubber is beginning to meet the road. Although the SBA 504 loan program was originally intended to revitalize local areas through its financing program, this new expansion literally broadens these possibilities on an exponential level. Sustainability, in a way, has been considered a minority class on a pure business level. Now the seeds are being planted in order to invigorate a model that is not only essential on an environmental level, but on a profitable business level as well.

Full on;line story about green real estate loans by Jonathan Schein