BRADENTON, Fla. Miramar, Fla., is planning to competitively sell $95.2 million of revenue bonds next Tuesday to fund a portion of the citys ongoing downtown renovation project called Miramar Town Center, an effort that has been under way for nearly a decade.
The Series 2005 bonds, to be sold via i-Deals Parity electronic bidding system, will mature in 2011 through 2035. They will be insured by MBIA Insurance Corp. and secured with revenue from the citys half-cent sales tax and local communications service tax.
About half of the bond proceeds will be used for Town Center, a 54-acre mixed-use project that places new government facilities, a cultural arts center, a library, and other facilities together with a private development component that will add retail space, offices, restaurants, and entertainment venues downtown.
Bond proceeds also will take out a $35 million bond anticipation note issue the city placed with SunTrust Bank in 2003. That note financing helped complete the $16 million, three-story city hall that opened last fall.
The transaction is structured to allow the city to capitalize interest and ramp up the building projects before principal repayment begins, said Frank Hall, managing director at Fidelity Financial Services LC, the citys financial adviser.
Based on preliminary discussions Ive had with a number of firms, theres going to be a lot of competition for this deal, and Im looking forward to receiving some aggressive bids, Hall said.
Nabors, Giblin & Nickerson PA is bond and special disclosure counsel.
Moodys Investors Service, the only agency to assign an underlying rating, rated the Series 2005 bonds A2, reflecting satisfactory debt service coverage by pledged revenue, the citys rapidly growing residential economy, favorable reserves with good financial flexibility, and low debt burden.
Miramar, in southwest Broward County, is the second-fastest growing city in the United States among cities with populations higher than 100,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The citys population, currently over 102,000, grew 40% from 2000 to 2004. Taxable property value increased to $6.7 billion this year, a 22.4% increase over last years $5.5 billion. The city does not have any outstanding general obligation bonds.
In 1999, Miramar did a $7.1 million taxable bond anticipation note to buy 40 acres of the 54-acre Town Center site. In February, the city agreed to sell the 40 acres for $11 million to Rockefeller Group Development Corp. and Kimco Development Inc. to build 135,000 square feet of retail space, 45,000 square feet of offices, 480 apartments and townhouses, and two parking garages.
The Town Center is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.
