Stonehill has appointed Anne Hill as president and Connor Murch as director of business development to lead the firm’s new Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) lending division.
In her new role, Hill will be actively involved in sourcing and underwriting opportunities and building partnerships with construction lenders nationwide, according to the firm. She previously served as president of RAHILL Capital, the nation’s leading originator of CPACE transactions for new construction. She also was senior vice president of corporate development at Murphy Company, one of the largest commercial mechanical contractors and engineers in the nation.
Hill earned her bachelor’s degree in architecture from Princeton University and her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Murch will identify and prequalify opportunities for PACE financing, and work with developers to structure PACE to fit with the other components of the capital stack. Prior to Stonehill, he served as senior finance manager with RAHILL Capital. During his tenure there, he worked with Hill and the rest of the RAHILL team to source and close more than $85 million in CPACE loans. Prior to that, he served as principal at Conquest Strategies, a commercial real estate/tech start-up consultancy and was also principal and financial manager at Revival STL Construction, where he sourced financing for more than $100 million in acquisitions.
Murch received his BSBA in finance & real estate from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Stonehill provides creative finance solutions for hospitality projects seeking capital to complete acquisitions, recapitalizations, refinancings and renovations, according to the firm. It primarily focuses on funding permanent loans, bridge loans, mezzanine loans and preferred equity investments backed by limited-, select-, and compact full-service hotel assets.
However, for the first time the firm will offer its lending services to all asset classes, not just to the hospitality industry, and it will target new construction projects, including hotels, multifamily, senior living and student housing, looking for a low-cost alternative to mezzanine financing, Mat Crosswy, principal at Stonehill, said in a statement.
According to Murch, PACE funding is available for most projects that adhere to local ordinances, providing a cost-efficient solution the firm believes will be attractive to many developers.
