Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it raised its long-term rating to A-minus from BBB on Riverside County Redevelopment Agency (RDA), Calif.'s outstanding tax allocation bonds secured by the successor agency's (SA) Desert Communities Project Area (DCPA).
At the same time, Standard & Poor's raised its long-term rating to A-minus from BBB-minus on the SA's existing subordinate lien DCPA TABs. Finally, Standard & Poor's assigned its A-minus long-term rating to the Successor Agency to the Riverside RDA's series 2014D tax allocation refunding bonds (TARBs). The outlook is stable.
"The raised rating reflects our view of the strong growth in the project area's assessed value during the past two fiscal years," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Li Yang. "The rating is further supported by a strengthening of the pledge to include housing revenues collected within the DCPA, net of the amounts needed to pay housing debt service attributable to it," Yang added.
The primarily residential DCPA encompasses 29,590 acres in six sub-areas spanning Blythe to Thousand Palms, including the communities of Mecca and Palm Desert. Riverside County is acting as SA to the former redevelopment agency (RDA) after the state legislature and a subsequent court ruling dissolved all RDAs in California in February 2012.
