“We are very excited about expanding our mission in southwest Florida. We greatly appreciate the good work of HJ Sims being our partner in the process with a successful financing for Gulf Coast Village.”
– Wayne Olson, Executive VP of Healthcare Operations and Development, Volunteers of America
Background
Gulf Coast Village (“GCV”) is a Florida nonprofit corporation incorporated in 1982 to provide housing and personal care services to seniors located in Cape Coral, Florida. GCV is a subordinate affiliate of Volunteers of America National Services (“VOA National Services”), a Minnesota non-profit corporation which provides support, coordination, financial management, quality assurance and strategic planning for its subordinate affiliates, including Gulf Coast Village. Sims was hired to refinance GCV’s existing bank debt and to expand and reposition the existing campus. VOA had determined that it was prudent to take advantage of attractive long term interest rates.
Challenge
GCV had outstanding Series 2012 bank bonds maturing until 2037; however, GCV’s management and Board sought to put a longer term financing solution in place to capitalize on historically low interest rates for a campus expansion. GCV preferred to have all tax exempt fixed rate debt with level debt service in order to have predictable payments. The Florida statute under which the bonds were issued posed several hurdles including a requirement that the bonds be sold only to institutions and accredited investors and also a limitation that the portion of the existing outstanding bank debt which was taxable could not be refinanced with tax-free bonds.
Execution
Sims worked with GCV, VOA and its development partner, Greystone, to structure a tax exempt, non-rated 35 year fixed rate bond issue with level debt service. Using a master trust indenture structure, Sims was able to negotiate a refunding of the outstanding taxable debt with the existing bank lender. The bank accepted a new note issued pur-suant to the new MTI, eliminating the need for two sets of lending documents which would have required an inter-creditor agreement. The bonds were sold with an average coupon of 5.90% and a net interest cost of 5.99% to a mix of institutional and accredited retail investors. Sims succeeded due to its longstanding relationships with institutional investors and to its extensive pre-sale marketing to accredited retail investors through Sims’ strong sales force.