Bell earns prestigious Counselor of Real Estate (CRE) designation
Caleb Bell has been awarded the CRE® (Counselor of Real Estate) designation by The Counselors of Real Estate®, an international group of high-profile real estate professionals who provide expert advisory services to clients on complex real property and land-related matters.
Only 1,000 professionals in all disciplines of real estate hold the CRE credential in the United States and 20 additional countries. Membership is highly selective and extended by invitation, although commercial real estate practitioners with 10 years of proven experience may apply. Members of The Counselors of Real Estate, which was established in 1953, are commercial property professionals from leading real estate, financial, law, valuation and business advisory firms, as well as real property experts in academia and government.
As chair of Bricker's Public Finance practice group, Caleb leads a regional practice that emphasizes public finance and economic development matters. His clients include municipalities, counties, townships, school districts, and public universities, as well as private developers and property owners across Ohio, Kentucky and the Midwest. Caleb is well known for his representation of special purpose financing entities such as port authorities, new community authorities (NCAs), special improvement districts (SIDs), energy special improvement districts (ESIDs) and energy project assessment districts (EPADs).
Caleb has been instrumental in advancing energy financing across the Midwest. He is a national thought leader in Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. He is a Board Member of PACENation, a member of the C-PACE Alliance, and has been appointed by the U.S. Department of Energy as a C-PACE Advisor. He was retained by clients to author Ohio's PACE financing statute, he served as bond counsel for Ohio's first issue of PACE-secured bonds, and he has financed over $500 million of PACE financing for over 200 PACE projects. Caleb has structured PACE financing into a variety of transactions, including retrofit projects, new construction projects, redevelopment projects, and tax credit projects in the Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, and Pennsylvania markets. In addition, he advised the State of Hawaii on its commercial PACE legislation, which was enacted into law in 2022. Caleb has served as bond counsel and underwriters’ counsel in more than $4 billion of natural gas and electricity prepayment bonds, including Ohio’s only tax-exempt refunding of energy prepayment bonds.
Caleb is an experienced negotiator, regularly advising his clients on complex projects involving multiple aspects of public finance and economic development law. He advises both public entities and private developers, and he brings a broad-based perspective to every transaction.
