Community Bakery in SoMa is Going Solar!
October 29 - November 4, 2018
Argenta-based Seal Energy Solutions has provided Community Bakery in SoMa with the tools to go solar. Seal Energy Solutions has designed a solar array which will be installed this fall at Community Bakery’s Main Street location. Community Bakery will have a 102-panel array, 350 Watts each, American Made system with a 30-year warranty.
Just as exciting as the system itself are the financing incentives Seal Energy Solutions worked to pull together for Community Bakery which include Solar Investment Tax Credit, Arkansas Rehabilitation Tax Credit (Historic Tax Credit), and Depreciation Incentives for an estimated 30-Year Internal Rate of Return 11.99 percent.
Community Bakery was started in 1947 by Ralph Hinson in the Rose City section of North Little Rock. The bakery moved to a storefront near 14th and Main Streets in Little Rock in 1952 where, over the years, it became an institution in the area. Mr. Hinson’s head cake decorator, Agnes Bargiel, bought the business from him in the late 1970s and operated it until she sold it to Joe Fox in 1983. Mrs. Bargiel continued to decorate cakes at Community Bakery until her passing in 2008.
Mr. Fox opened the West Little Rock location in 1986 and then relocated the Main Street store to its current location after renovating the vacant historic Cohn Building. The Café operation, espresso bar and distinctive line of European style pastries were added when the bakery opened in the Cohn Building at 12th and Main in 1993. All their baking and cake decorating is done at the Main Street location and many of the recipes used 60 years ago are still in use today. Community Bakery employs 65 people to meet the needs of its customers in Central Arkansas.
Community Bakery is using the Arkansas Rehabilitation Tax Credit to help fund their solar project; they are working with the Arkansas expert, Amber Jones. “Nothing gives me greater pleasure than helping owners get a financial return on the maintenance and improvement of their historic home or historic commercial building,” says Amber. “It’s especially exciting when we are able to add solar to a project, twinning the Arkansas Rehabilitation Tax Credit and Federal Incentive (Solar) Tax Credit, which encourages solar and other sustainable practices to reduce energy consumption while maintaining the characteristics that make historic properties significant, in effect, keeping these historic properties in service.”
Amber lives in an 1890s Queen Anne Victorian in Little Rock’s Quapaw Quarter with her husband, Scott, and their three daughters. They added solar to their home in 2017, utilizing the Arkansas Rehabilitation Tax Credit and Federal Incentive (Solar) Tax Credit.
Seal Energy Solutions has been designing and installing solar arrays since 2015, originally focused on residential as a compliment to their energy efficiency and HVAC business lines. In late 2016 they rode the solar growth wave and expanded into agricultural and commercial projects across Arkansas. A project map and sampling of their work can be found at https://sealcorporation.com/solar/our-work/.
Seal Energy Solutions is a member of Arkansas Advanced Energy Association and the AAEE, is a licensed Arkansas contractor, and employs certificate holders from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP).
About Community Bakery
Founded in 1947, Community Bakery has been under Joe Fox’s ownership since 1983 and at its present location on Main Street since 1993. More information is available at www.communitybakery.com.
About Seal Energy Solutions
Founded in 2012, Seal Energy Solutions specializes in solar design and install, energy efficiency, and HVAC and works in over 4000 homes annually. More information is available at www.sealcorporation.com.
About Amber Jones, Historic Preservation Tax Credit Consultant
Amber Jones has been preparing Historic Federal and State tax credit documents and facilitating the sale of the Arkansas Historic Tax Credit for historic property owners since 2010. To date, she has completed more than 350 projects with property owners receiving over $9.5MM dollars in Federal and State Tax Credits, collectively, with about $5.5 million in State Credits funded to cash. She handles projects throughout Arkansas.
Source: Seal Energy Solutions