Road and Bridge Program Marks $100M in Lending 
The Infrastructure Bank recently closed on $32.5 million in low-interest loans for road and bridge projects in Providence, Warwick, and Cumberland. With the closing of these loans, the Bank’s Municipal Road and Bridge Revolving Loan Fund has provided over $100 million in low-interest loans to 19 municipalities across the state to improve roads and bridges. This investment has supported over 1,100 local jobs.

“The Infrastructure Bank is proud to support local communities by making significant investments in their transportation infrastructure,” said Jeffrey R. Diehl, Infrastructure Bank CEO. “Our below-market interest rate loans will deliver over $2.6 million of debt service savings for Providence, Warwick, and Cumberland over the lifetime of the loans. Additionally, the project financing will support approximately 332 well-paying jobs across Rhode Island.”

Warwick Mayor Joseph Solomon recently told the Warwick Beacon , “Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank has been essential to saving Warwick taxpayer dollars. We are proud to continue working with the Bank to upgrade Warwick’s infrastructure in a way that delivers savings to the community; by spending wisely we can do more for our taxpayers. With interest rates at historic lows and the Bank offering below-market rates, this is a prime opportunity to make investments in our infrastructure.” Read the full article here .
Free-up Liquidity through Rhode Island C-PACE
An op-ed authored by Infrastructure Bank CEO Jeffrey R. Diehl was recently featured in the New England Real Estate Journal. The piece focused on the benefits that Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) loans provide to property owners. To this end, Diehl highlighted how the RI C-PACE program has enabled building owners to invest over $64 million in energy efficiency and clean energy upgrades. In all, these investments have resulted in asset value increases of $8.5 million for the underlying property’s, while simultaneously generating $15.5 million of cash-savings from reduced energy consumption. To read the full op-ed and learn more about how C-PACE commercial property owner’s, visit .
Offering Flexibility for Our Clients 
The Infrastructure Bank is pleased to announce, that in cooperation with its regulatory partners, it has temporarily suspended the bi-weekly schedule for processing disbursement requests and will accept requests as submitted. Furthermore, the Bank will allow multiple disbursement requests submitted in a single month under any of its loan programs. 

This change went into effect on March 16 as a response to the economic and logistical hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving forward, we are continuing to encourage our customers to submit disbursement requests as soon as they are compiled. We will do all we can to move these through our approval flow process and promptly pay funds to you, your vendors, and your contractors. In addition, we encourage payment recipients to provide us with electronic payment details, as this enables us to process payments more efficiently and safely. 

Historically, the Bank has operated on a fixed schedule for disbursements in order to manage our workflow and that of our regulatory partners. While this has worked well for us over the years, maintaining that strict schedule may be contributing to financial stress for some businesses in the current environment. Since early March when Governor Raimondo’s stay at home order went into effect, the Bank has disbursed over $22 million into the economy to support municipalities, their contractors and vendors, and employees.
Partner Spotlight: New Name Equals Refocused Priorities
The Bank’s partner in administering the Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund (BRLF) is changing its name. As of April 22nd, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s Office of Waste Management is now operating under the moniker of Office of Land Revitalization and Sustainable Materials Management . The new name more accurately captures the range of duties that are tasked to the Office and emphasizes its broader aim of supporting sustainable economic development. To learn more, please visit the Office’s updated web-page here .

The BRLF makes financing available to public, private and non-profit borrowers for the remediation of properties contaminated with hazardous substances such as asbestos and lead remediation. Conducting environmental cleanups enables these properties to be redeveloped and returned to productive use. Financing terms for loans made through the Brownfields Fund, including interest rates, fees, and loan terms, are made on a case-by-case basis. To learn more about the BRLF, visit .