The New York City Capital Resource Corp. last week delayed the issuance of $35 million of recovery zone facility bonds for three projects, citing a “difficult financing environment.”
The CRC board extended the deadline for a $20 million deal for Albee Retail Development LLC to develop a 40,000-square-foot retail project in downtown Brooklyn. It also extended deadlines for $15 million of bonds for two projects on behalf of Benjamin Beechwood Market LLC and Benjamin Beechwood Retail LLC to develop a supermarket and retail plaza serving the Arverne at the Sea housing development in Rockaway, Queens.
The recovery zone facility bond program, a private-activity bond program created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, expires at the end of 2010. The city received an allocation of $120 million of RZFBs.
With the deadline in mind, the CRC called for projects to be shovel-ready and required borrowers to close their deals within 60 days of receiving financing commitment letters or lose their bond allocation. According to agency documents, the projects have received those letters but “it is unlikely that the bonds will be issued in time to meet the 60-day limit.”
Roosevelt & Cross Inc. will privately place the bonds for the Albee retail project, known as Albee Square, with a bond fund sponsored by Oppenheimer Funds Inc., according to CRC documents.
CRC spokesman Kyle Sklerov did not elaborate on the financing difficulties but said in an e-mail that the agency expects “the projects to be underway by the summer” and that “the timeline does not seem inappropriate.”
The CRC also gave preliminary approval for up to $28 million of RZFBs for Staten Island Terminal LLC to help finance the construction of a $51.7 million cement import and distribution facility.
