Commission approves engagement letters for five residential housing development bonds; developers to pay issuance costs
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Summary
The commission approved engagement letters for bond counsel, municipal financial advisor and economic finance consultant for five separate residential housing development projects; staff said the fees are paid from bond cost-of-issuance funds provided by the developers.
The Portage Redevelopment Commission approved engagement letters to support bond issuance for five separate residential housing development projects.
Commission staff explained that each of the five residential housing development programs requires a distinct bond-obligation process and that bond counsel, a municipal financial advisor and an economic development finance consultant each submitted engagement letters for each project. Staff said Barnes & Thornburg will serve as bond counsel, O.W. Cronin & Associates (referred to in the packet) as municipal financial advisor, and the city27s economic development finance consultant as described in the meeting materials.
Staff told the commission the engagement letter fees are part of the cost of issuance and will be paid from bond proceeds (developer-funded), not from redevelopment commission operating funds. The commission approved separate motions to retain the same set of consultants for each project: Bauer Farms, River Trace, Sandy Trails, Providence at Farmington and Swanson Trails; five separate approvals were recorded.
Why it matters: completing engagement letters is a procedural step required to organize trustees and consultant roles so bonds can be issued after confirmatory resolutions and other prerequisites are complete. Staff said they expect the documents to be finalized before year-end and that trustees will be engaged later in the closing process.
