The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York gave final approval to $791.3 million of bonds at its board meeting yesterday, while also creating a finance committee as required under a public authorities reform measure enacted last year.
The largest transaction approved yesterday was a $380 million refunding of tax-exempt bonds issued on behalf of Mount Sinai Hospital in 2000.
The Manhattan-based teaching hospital expects the refunding will save at least $35 million at net present value.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. will lead manage the sale of the fixed-rate bonds that will have maturities of up to 18 years. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP is bond counsel.
New York City expects to save $4.1 million at net present value by refunding $199 million of tax-exempt bonds issued in 1998 and 2001 under DASNY’s municipal health facilities improvement program on behalf of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp.
The program allows municipalities to finance health care facilities developed by nonprofits in conjunction with a local development corporation. The HHC operates the largest municipal health care system in the country.
The bonds are not secured by the HHC but rather by lease payments from the city, subject to appropriation, and by a statutory intercept of state Medicaid payments to the city.
The tax-exempt bonds will be marketed competitively. Orrick Herrington is bond counsel.
The board also approved the reoffering of $121 million of bonds issued on behalf of Cornell University.
Ithaca-based university’s bonds will be reoffered to convert them to fixed rate from daily rate. Orrick Herrington is bond counsel.
Also yesterday, DASNY’s board gave final approval for $41.3 million of bonds to refund pooled debt on behalf of members of the InterAgency Council.
The council is a 120-member organization created in the 1970s by nonprofit institutions serving mentally and developmentally disabled persons.
The bonds would be issued on behalf of eight IAC members that receive funding from the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. The bonds are backed by a pledge of state funding by individual members.
Municipal Capital Markets Inc. will lead manage the sale of the bonds through a public offering and private placement. Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP is bond counsel.
The board also created a finance committee as required under last year’s public authority reform act, but the function of the committee and its size has yet to be determined.
The authority’s governance committee is expected to propose a charter for the new committee in May.
“We’re going to allow the governance committee of the board to deliberate on that in terms of their thoughts on what the finance committee should be focused on and the mandate of the finance committee,” said DASNY executive director Paul Williams Jr. “We have a very committed and strong board who feel they in fact are the ones responsible for reviewing the financings and aren’t necessarily interested in delegating that to a committee.”
The DASNY board gave preliminary approvals yesterday to four bond deals: an $80 million new-money deal on behalf of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and $30 million of bonds on behalf of St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn and Patchogue.
Preliminary approval also went to Highland Hospital of Rochester for $11 million of new-money bonds; and $11.1 million of new-money and refunding bonds for the Devereux Foundation in the town of Red Hook.
