Harrisonburg Innovation Hub marks grand opening, highlights effort to reduce footprint

The Harrisonburg Innovation Hub marked its grand opening on Thursday, and among the highlights is an innovative effort to reduce the carbon footprint of the Downtown Harrisonburg building, which was constructed in 1925.

“The Innovation Hub is a great example of an older building being revitalized and providing mixed use for the City of Harrisonburg. This project demonstrates the flexibility of our program for successful results and is a double win for the property owner as well as for the city,” said Abby Johnson, executive director of the Virginia PACE Authority, which oversees the C-PACE program in Virginia.

The C-PACE program funds a wide variety of building measures on commercial properties through competitively priced loans.

An $817,000 loan financed through PACE Equity is going toward replacing exterior lighting, internal lighting controls and power, and HVAC systems.

The energy savings resulting from the updates is projected at $2,416 a year, the equivalent to that of five households’ electricity use in one year.

The 25 N. Liberty St. Innovation Hub is being transformed into a three-floor shared workspace offering a variety of office settings, including conference rooms, focus rooms and common areas.

The building also features electric vehicle charging stations to help generate significant annual energy savings.

HIH anticipates more than 150 businesses working from the building, with at least 300 members among them.

“Harrisonburg Innovation Hub is the city’s first C-PACE project,” City of Harrisonburg Economic Development Director Brian Shull said. “Harrisonburg City Council adopted the C-PACE ordinance in October 2023 as a win-win scenario to provide our development community with a new financing tool and create an incentive for increased energy efficiency investments.

“HIH is a transformative project that will enable Harrisonburg to help meet the needs of an ever-changing business ecosystem. We have been excited to partner with the HIH team since Day 1, and we look forward to tremendous success,” Shull said.