Both pull long-term capital into a stuck deal — but a ground lease does it with more cash, a far lower non-amortizing carry, and no lien ahead of your loan. We buy the land; you keep the building and 100% of the upside.
| Valor ground lease | C-PACE loan | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash raised | The full land value — any asset, no "green" scope required; usually enough to fund the equity injection. | Only eligible energy / resiliency scope, capped ~25–35% of value — often a fraction of what the deal needs. |
| Annual carry | ~6–6.75%, non-amortizing ground rent. | ~9–11% loan constant — fully amortizing; climbs past 12% on a 15-year term. |
| Lien position | Not a lien at all — nothing senior to your collateral, no consent to give. | Super-priority tax assessment senior to your mortgage — you must consent to subordinate. |
| Refinance / takeout | Clears the path — the land isn't your collateral, so your leasehold (including agency) refinances on the smaller basis. | Can block a conventional or agency takeout — many lenders (including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) won't sit behind the super-priority lien. |
| What it funds | Any use — the equity injection, the acquisition, the gap. | Qualifying energy / water / resiliency measures only. |
| Accounting & tax | 100% deductible operating rent — treated as rent, not funded debt. | Amortizes as a debt-like assessment; only the interest portion is deductible. |
| Where it works | Anywhere there's land value to monetize. | Only where there's an active local C-PACE program — many rural markets have none. |
And: fixed and non-amortizing — no balloon, no maturity wall · no energy audit, program enrollment, or technical administrator · one principal counterparty for the land and the leasehold financing.
Usually, on both proceeds and carry. A ground lease monetizes the full land value at a non-amortizing ground rent of about 6–6.75%, while C-PACE funds only eligible energy or resiliency scope at a ~9–11% amortizing constant. On $5M of capital the carry difference is roughly $175K a year.
It often does. C-PACE is a super-priority tax assessment that sits ahead of your mortgage, so many conventional and agency lenders — including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — won't refinance behind it. A ground lease isn't a lien, so it doesn't create that problem.
Yes — that's a common use. The ground-lease proceeds can retire the C-PACE assessment, removing the super-priority lien, clearing the path to your takeout, and lowering your carry to non-amortizing ground rent.
No. You keep the building (the leasehold), the operations, and 100% of the upside and promote. We buy only the land and lease it back to you on a long-term, typically 99-year, lease.
Land-heavy, hotel, or healthcare deals — especially where the borrower is short the equity injection, there's no local C-PACE program, or you'd rather not sit behind a super-priority lien. Send the address, the as-complete stabilized NOI, and total project cost — we return an indicative land value in 48 hours, as principal or arranged capital.
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