Vail to consider issuing bonds for Lionshead projects
VAIL, Colorado – The Vail Town Council, acting as the Vail Reinvestment Authority, will consider a staff recommendation to issue 20-year tax increment financing bonds during a meeting of the Vail Reinvestment Authority Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Vail Municipal Building.
The bonds would fund $12.3 million of public improvement projects to be completed within the Lionshead Tax Increment Financing District within the next three years, including the Lionshead Transit Center, Lionshead Welcome Center, Lionshead entrance and exit improvements and a Vail Library remodel.
Vail staff previously focused on issuing bonds following the November 2010 election if Amendments 60 and 61 pass, but Finance Director Judy Camp says staff’s current recommendation is to proceed with the bond issue before the Nov. 2 election to avoid the potential uncertainty in the market for Colorado municipal bonds and to take advantage of low interest rates.
The first phase of the Lionshead Transit Center project began construction last week. The current town budget includes cash funding for the transit center project, but future phases require bond financing for the welcome center and other projects.
“With municipal bond rates at 40-year lows, it makes sense to bond sooner rather than later,” according to an Aug. 12 memo to the Vail Reinvestment Authority from Camp and Town Manager Stan Zemler. “It also makes sense to bond several projects at one time, rather than incrementally, because each bond issue incurs approximately $70,000 of fixed costs as well as staff time.”
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The bonds would be repaid from incremental property tax revenue, which has been collected since 2007, generated from the Lionshead redevelopment. The TIF district was established by the Vail Town Council in 2005 in anticipation of up to $40 million of public improvements identified to complement private redevelopment. The district’s bonding authority will expire in 2030.
Issuance of the bonds, as proposed, would require approval of a resolution of bonding parameters by the Vail Reinvestment Authority following a public hearing currently proposed for Oct. 5. For more information, contact Judy Camp at 970-479-2119.
