Fort Collins to host public meeting on proposed changes to mall finance agreement

FORT COLLINS – The city of Fort Collins will host a question-and-answer session on the Foothills mall from 7 to 9 p.m. on April 28 for community members to hear more about proposed changes to the financing agreement between the city and the mall’s developer.
The modification relates to the amount of space that must be leased before the bonds can be issued. In the original agreement, the developer was required to have signed leases on 240,000 square feet before the bonds could be issued. The modification would allow the developer to issue bonds with 155,000 square feet leased.

Additionally, the developer would decrease the total square footage occupied by tenants new to Fort Collins from the previously agreed-upon 120,000 square feet to 90,000.
The Q and A will be held in the community room at 215 N. Mason St.
The modification would allow Alberta Development Partners LLC, the Denver-based company in charge of redeveloping the mall, to issue $72 million in non-rated bonds sooner, an important matter as the deadline for issuing the bonds approaches.

The agreement between the city and Alberta can be terminated if the bonds are not issued by June 30. The bonds are projected to include an interest rate of around 7 percent, Birks said, but the precise interest rate will not be known until the bonds are issued.
City Council will vote on the proposed changes on May 6.
The Q and A is meant to answer questions about the amendment, and public comments will be taken at the city council vote.

The newly proposed agreement also states that if the requested alterations are made, only $23 million of the $53 million in bond proceeds would be released to the project. The remaining $30 million would be released in segments to the project as additional leases are executed by the developer.

on Facebook on LinkedIn