California Custom Processing buys new building

Madera’s California Custom Processing (CCP), a custom processor of almonds for domestic and global customers that produce bakery, snack, confection, dairy, and plant-based consumer products, closed on a USDA loan and Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing combination that will support a refinance, the construction of an adjacent facility, and a renewable energy system for their Madera facility.

The current CCP almond processing facility is 65,000 square-feet. X-Caliber Rural Capital (XRC) provided $29.5 million through the USDA’s Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program for a refinance and expansion for the new construction of an adjacent 52,500 square foot processing building. CastleGreen Finance provided $4 million of C-PACE financing through the California Statewide Community Development Authority (CSCDA) — Open PACE Program that will fund the renewable energy system.

CCP will be increasing its sustainability with a roof mounted solar array for its current facility and will be using seismic resiliency in the construction of its expansion. The new facility will allow CCP to increase its intake from customers by 30 percent while leveraging its Sunvapor steam generator for the blanching (removal of almond skin), scalding, processing, and pasteurizing of raw almonds. The solar steam generator emits zero carbon 100 percent during daylight hours with an estimate to reduce carbon emissions overall by 25-35 percent.