Carlyle Makes Strategic Investment in North Bridge 

Carlyle has made a strategic investment in North Bridge ESG LLC, a real estate finance provider, and a commitment to provide up to $1 billion to facilitate the origination of commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) loans by North Bridge. 

C-PACE financing can be used by real estate owners for new construction projects, renovations, acquisitions, and recapitalization opportunities. 

“Carlyle’s $1B commitment to C-PACE, the largest to date, enables North Bridge to lead the transformation of the industry to better meet the needs of institutional sponsors and their lenders.” said Laura Rapaport, founder and CEO of North Bridge. 

This transaction was a joint effort between global investment firm Carlyle’s Credit Strategic Solutions (CSS) and private credit teams. CSS has deployed nearly $5 billion since 2021 and has roughly $7 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2024. 

Within the private credit team, Carlyle’s Real Estate Credit Opportunities strategy focuses on directly originated, asset-specific CRE lending, programmatic investing in real estate credit platforms, financing companies targeting real estate, and making real estate-linked investments. 

“Banks have pulled back from commercial real estate lending due to concentration risk in the sector, resulting in a dynamic that we believe should yield attractive relative value opportunities for C-PACE lenders with capital to deploy today,” added Rachel King, a principal focused on opportunistic real estate credit at Carlyle. 

Paul Hastings LLP served as legal advisor to Carlyle in connection with the transaction. Latham & Watkins LLP and Chapman and Cutler LLP served as legal advisors to North Bridge in connection with the transaction.