North Lake Town Council approves $27.5 million in bonds, backs industrial plan changes and several development agreements

North Lake — The North Lake Town Council on Feb. 27 approved a package of financing and development actions including a $22,280,000 general obligation (GO) bond tranche for the Star Center project, $5,225,000 in hotel-occupancy tax revenue bonds for a hotel/conference center, amendments to an industrial plan development for DHL Supply Chain, and two development-agreement actions discussed in executive session. All recorded votes were unanimous among the six councilors present; one council member was absent.

The council approved the GO bond issuance to fund the Star Center project, bringing the total project fund from voter-authorized bond proceeds close to the $45 million authorization. John (staff member) told the council the combined 2024 and 2025 issuances will leave a project balance of about $44,790,000 and that the town expects delivery of the funds on March 27. Marty Hsu of Hilltop Securities, the town’s financial advisor, said the bonds “were oversubscribed” and reported a favorable market result; the taxable GO bonds carried a final true interest cost of about 5.46%.

The council also approved hotel-occupancy tax revenue bonds to finance the town’s planned hotel/conference center. The issuance for that project was presented as $5,225,000 in total bonds with debt service to be paid from hotel-tax revenues. Marty Hsu explained hotel-tax-backed revenue bonds generally carry higher interest rates than GO bonds because they are secured only by hotel revenues; he said the transaction’s TIC was about 5.81% and that the town saved roughly $60,000 over the bond life by purchasing bond…