AMSCD Approves New Bond Offering

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Published on Thursday, 17 May 2012 19:26

The Ave Maria Stewardship Community District board approved a new bond offering Wednesday that is aimed at retiring short-term debt of about $26 million that is due in November and replacing it with longer-term, 20-year bonds.

The debt being refinanced is about half of the total bond obligations originally taken out in 2006 that paid for major infrastructure of the town of Ave Maria, including Ave Maria Blvd. and Pope John Paul II Blvd, their sidewalks, landscaping, streetlights and other ancillary items, as well as the master irrigation system and the stormwater management system that includes 116 lakes in the town.

Half of that debt is in long-term bonds, the interest on which is being paid through assessments on the town's first 2,500 residences. Current residents see this in their supplemental annual assessments. These assessments will not change, and the new offering does not affect anyone who owns one of the first 2,500 homes built in Ave Maria.

The interest on the new offering will be paid initially by the landholders in what is described as Phase Two, where the next 2,500 residences will be built, and eventually will be paid by owners of the homes built on that land.

The offering approved Wednesday is for up to $30 million in tax-exempt municipal bonds that would be unrated and carry an interest rate of up to 6.86 percent, which would mean supplemental assessments for debt service by the Phase Two homeowners would be about 20 percent higher.

The underwriter, MBS Capital Markets, is offering the bonds for sale and their managing partner, Kevin Mulshine, told the AMSCD meeting that he would hope to have the offering fully subscribed by May 24 and the funds in hand by early June.