Ares-backed Heelstone Renewable Energy closed a $357 million debt financing with JPMorgan Chase and Fifth Third Bank for five utility-scale solar projects.
Fifth Third Bank and JPMorgan Chase acted as co-lead arrangers for the debt financing, along with City National Bank, Comerica Bank, First Horizon Bank, and United Community Bank, as co-documentation agents.
“Our background in finance enabled us to identify the opportunity and work closely with our capital partners to create a solution capable of securing tax equity and project debt,” said Justin Gravatt, Heelstone's chief executive.
The financing will support the construction completion and operations of five projects, four of which are located in Georgia, totaling 345MW of power generation:
· Lyons Solar
· Blackwater Solar
· Bird Dog Solar
· Hobnail Solar
· Wolfskin Solar
The five solar projects are currently under construction and expected to be operational by early 2024.
In February 2023, Heelstone closed a $175 million corporate financing facility with BlackRock Alternatives for its 11GW solar pipeline. The financing came from a fund managed by the asset manager’s infrastructure debt business.
Heelstone currently has over 80 solar projects across the country totaling 1GW capacity. Ares Management Corp invested in the North Carolina-based utility-scale solar developer, from funds managed by Ares’ infrastructure and power group, back in 2019 (PFR, 8/19/19).