Albina Bank sets up financing for Lime Wind project in eastern Oregon
By Christina Williams
Sustainable Business Oregon editor
A three-megawatt wind project in eastern Oregon received funding with the help of New Markets Tax Credits provided through Albina Community Bank.
A subsidiary of Albina Community Bancorp announced Tuesday that it deployed $8.4 million in New Markets Tax Credits to fund Lime Wind Holdings LLC in its effort to build a 3-megawatt wind energy project in Baker County.
Albina Equity Fund I LLC partnered with Wells Fargo and Roeder & Company LLC to structure the transaction as part of the wind farm's financing.
Cheryl Cebula, president and CEO of Albina Community Bank said the transaction generated $518,000 of net fee income for Albina, of which $302,000 will count toward third-quarter revenues, with the rest deferred over the next six years.
The wind facility consists of six 500-kilowatt turbines. It is the first wind project built on federal land in Oregon and the first to use refurbished wind turbines eligible for Oregon State Energy Loan Program funding.
Randy Joseph, who developed and owns the project with his two sons, said the turbines are up and running and the power is being sold to Idaho Power.
“Albina has been considering a number of qualified projects, and we were delighted to find this community scale renewable energy project, located in Lime, Oregon,” said Cebula in a press release. “Leveraged transactions of this type spur social and economic development in our region.”
In 2009, Albina Equity Fund I received $10 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation from the U.S. Treasury Department's Community Development Institutions Fund. The credits are designed to spur new or increased investments into disadvantaged communities and provide a 39 percent tax credit to investors over a period of seven years.
New Markets Tax Credits have been used to fund a number of sustainability-related projects in Oregon in recent years including the ZeaChem alternative fuels plant in Boardman and the green building project for the Blanchet House announced last year.
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