Meet Francisco Crespo, Director of Originations

With extensive experience in commercial real estate, Columbus, Ohio-based Francisco Crespo leads originations across the Midwest in key states, including Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

What do you do in your current role?

As an originator, I work with real estate owners and developers across the country, with a focus on the Midwest, to help capitalize their projects. Nuveen Green Capital’s C-PACE financing has been particularly useful in the Midwest as a creative way to leverage the institutional strength of Nuveen with the flexible structure of a C-PACE assessment. It is a much-needed source of capital in many markets across in the Midwest.

What led you to this career path?

My career path in real estate started in development. It was great, because it taught me the optimism and persistence it takes to complete a project. It also taught me how much I wanted to learn about all aspects of the industry. I pivoted to the financing side of the business since I knew that if you can’t get it financed, you usually can’t get it built. In C-PACE, and with the Nuveen Green Capital platform, I found an opportunity to help owners and developers solve financing challenges in a creative and sustainable way. I count myself lucky as someone who has gotten to work in an emerging industry in an era of growth.

What do you see in the future for clean energy and this business?

I imagine that the variety of sustainable options in real estate business (development, design, finance, maintenance, etc.) will only continue to grow. Our business is fundamentally affected by climate change and so new tools, like C-PACE, are being developed to continue the safe and profitable growth of our business.

How and why is this important to you?

I started my career as an emergency manager, and I spent most of my time trying to mitigate risks brought about by poorly maintained infrastructure and unsustainable building practices. At the time, much of the conversation was presented as a dichotomy between public safety and economic prosperity. I knew that as the severity and frequency of severe weather increased, that a market would need to emerge to try and solve these fundamental problems. I think the success of sustainable financing options, like C-PACE are a key step in that direction.