PACE Loan Group Adds CRE Vet Kenneth Sacco as CFO
Sacco will lead capital markets functions at the C-PACE lender in his return to the CRE industry after a corporate finance role at Netflix.
By Andrew Coen August 14, 2026 12:40 pm
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PACE Loan Group (PLG) has hired a commercial real estate veteran and finance leader to shepherd its capital markets momentum in the growing commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) market.
The Minneapolis-based lender named Kenneth Sacco, who has advised on more than $10 billion worth of transactions and executed over $30 billion in debt financings in his CRE career, as its new chief financial officer Friday, Commercial Observer can first report. The move marks a return to the CRE world for Sacco, who most recently held senior corporate finance and treasury positions at Netflix and Life Time.
“We were looking for a strategic finance leader who could help guide PLG through this next stage of growth,” PLG CEO Rafi Golberstein said in a statement. “Ken brings a rare skill set to this seat: real institutional capital markets experience paired with deep commercial real estate expertise. As PLG scales, that combination is exactly what we need to build out our finance and capital markets function.”
Sacco began his finance career as a management consultant in the real estate advisory practices of Ernst & Young and KPMG before moving into investment banking roles at Lehman Brothers in New York and Barclays Capital in London. He later worked on the brokerage side of the CRE business as a managing director leading financial advisory practices at CBRE and JLL.
PLG has become a leader in the C-PACE lending space in recent years after closing the first deal under New Jersey’s newly launched program in January 2026 with a $45.5 million loan to recapitalize Tower Investments’ Island Waterpark at Showboat project in Atlantic City. The lender has expanded across the U.S. with new offices in Austin, Texas, Chicago, New York City and San Diego.
“C-PACE brings together my background in complex financial structuring and my passion for commercial real estate,” Sacco said in a statement. “PLG is entering the current phase of industry growth from a position of strength.”
Sacco added that PLG’s “fully in-house operating model,” coupled with financial backing of AB CarVal, provides a competitive advantage compared to a number of other C-PACE lenders.
After earning a BBA at Miami University in Ohio, Sacco received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Master of Corporate Real Estate (MCR) designation from CoreNet Global. He also served in the United States Marine Corps as part of an infantry weapons company.
Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.
