Good morning. My name is John Hebert. I’m a 35+ yr St Croix 
resident and business owner. 
We are currently in the pre-construction phase of a desperately-
needed 120-bed fully certified Skilled Nursing Facility at 2B Estate 
Upper Love, on St. Croix, with future plans for adjacent Assisted 
Living and independent senior living facilities, as well as a 120 bed 
SNF on St. Thomas.
Projects like ours and most others are extremely expensive to 
develop. Traditional lenders require a substantial, often prohibitive,
injection of owner capital or equity before committing to any level 
of financing. To the majority in the VI business community this is 
insurmountable, which ultimately results in unrealized social and 
economic benefit for the territory at large. 
The CPACE program is a game-changing alternative in the 
development lending marketplace, affording developers and 
business owners the currently unavailable option to bridge the 
proverbial equity-funding gap. 
In our SNF scenario, a CPACE participant lender would provide that 
shortfall in the equity component required by our primary lender. 
If CPACE is approved in the Virgin Islands, it would enable 
developers and business owners alike to take advantage of a 
broader borrowing environment. 
The CPACE program allows small business owners nation-wide to 
move their projects forward to fruition, creating social and 
economic benefit to their communities at zero risk or cost to 
taxpayers or local government bodies.
It’s time we are afforded the same CPACE opportunity in the VI. This
legislation needs to be advanced and ultimately passed. 
Thank you.