PowerREIT acquires site for 60 MW-AC solar PV project in California

Power REIT (Old Bethpage, New York, U.S.) has closed on its previously announced acquisition of the site for a 60 MW-AC solar photovoltaic (PV) project in California, and additionally has entered into a USD 26.2 million credit facility.

The company has acquired roughly 1.8 square kilometers in Central California's Kern County as the site for the project, which is currently under construction and is expected to be completed during 2014.  Power REIT acquires the real estate underlying power generation projects, and leases them to project owners.

“The Kern County acquisition is consistent with Power REIT's objective of acquiring assets on an attractive risk-adjusted return basis that are accretive to Funds From Operations per share,” stated PowerREIT Chair and CEO David Lesser.

“Similar to other recent acquisitions of ours, we believe that the rental payment stream is highly predictable, given that the prospective tenant will pay Power REIT a small fraction of its projected operating cash flow and that the improvements that our tenant has paid for that are located on our land would be uneconomic to relocate.”

Prior to the acquisition, PowerREIT held sites for roughly 25 MW of PV projects. With the Kern County acquisition, roughly half of PowerREIT's revenue will be generated from its investments in project sites for renewable energy projects.

PowerREIT seeking to buy more land

The USD 26.2 million credit facility that PowerREIT has entered into is being used to fund a portion of the Kern County acquisition, and will be used to help additional land purchases. It may also be used refinance the bridge finance that it received in late 2013 from Hudson Bay Partners (New York City) for the land acquisition.

PowerREIT says that it has entered into interest rate hedging strategies intended to minimize the risk of refinancing and interest rate swings.

The company has also completed an initial closing of its previously announced offering of 7.75% Series A Preferred Stock. Up to 175,000 shares are available and 110,000 shares have been sold to date.

http://www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news/current/2014/kw16/powerreit-acquires-site-for-60-mw-ac-solar-pv-project-in-california.html