BANGOR, Maine — While the stagnant economy is no boon to most, it is paying some unexpected dividends to the city of Bangor.
Wednesday’s Bangor City Council finance committee meeting had councilors beaming over a much lower-than-expected total debt service cost for Bangor’s new civic arena and events center.
“We estimated our annual debt service initially at $3.7 million per year for 30 years, but thanks to historically low interest rates, Bangor’s good credit rating, and more interest than expected on our debt service for the arena, it’s going to be $2.99 million,” said Bangor Finance Director Debbie Cyr.
That computes to an annual savings — or lower-than-estimated debt service cost — of almost $750,000 a year.
The five councilors — Pat Blanchette, Nelson Durgin, Joe Baldacci, Geoffrey Gratwick and James Gallant — who are members of the finance committee could hardly wait to sign off on the deal.
“It’s a better-than-expected deal for Bangor with no tax cost to our citizens,” said Baldacci. “This means that with revenues from the casino and TIF funding, we’ll be able to manage the arena’s cost quite nicely, saving $23 [million] to $24 million overall over a 30-year period.”
Cyr said the overall initial debt service estimate, which was done back in November, was determined based on our revenue received from downtown TIF [tax increment financing] funds and gaming revenue from Hollywood Casino.
“That’s how we arrived at our $65 million estimate for the arena,” she said.
“I think it was [former Councilor] David Nealley who used to call Debbie obnoxiously conservative when she worked up her estimates,” said Bangor City Manager Cathy Conlow. “Debbie does always err on the conservative side because she’d rather have people be pleasantly surprised when the final numbers come out, and we are very pleasantly surprised with these numbers.”
Cyr said besides historically low construction costs and interest rates, the arena project benefited from greater-than-anticipated interest and competition among investors for Bangor’s debt service.
“We were very pleased with the results of the [debt service] sale yesterday,” Cyr said. “It shows we have good credit standing within the investment community. We did all our due diligence, and our credit ratings from Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s make us an attractive buy.”
Apparently Bangor’s debt is even more attractive than Cyr dared to hope.
“We actually have 10 bidders for our debt service, but we didn’t expect that many, only because of the scope and cost of this project, which we don’t do very often,” she said.
Baldacci said he hopes citizens realize this is further proof of the increasing value of the newly named Cross Insurance Center.
“Several councils believed in this project, and this is a reward for that faith,” Baldacci said. “This shows how the hard work of our city employees and due diligence people like Debbie Cyr has paid off for the citizens of Bangor.”
Great news, more proof of “build it and they will come”.
??
The fact that there are many wanting to finance the place says a great deal about the viability of the building and already they are getting inquiries for use of the facilities. “Build it they will come” comes from a movie, I forget the name of it, where a farmer built a baseball diamond in the middle of no-where in a corn field and he got many people to his field to watch baseball.
“Field of Dreams”
Thank you, could not think of the name of the movie.
Many did not want to finance the place.. Many like tax free bonds and Bangors credit ratings.
The folks that put this whole thing together from the original council members, city staff and private citizens have done a magnificent job. This is just Icing. I just cant wait for it to open.
Great…. Now what statue will they move with the extra money. How about getting back to being a local government? Police and Fire Depts are without a contract and have not had a raise for the last couple of years. No wonder so many police officers are retiring and leaving. 14 to 21% less pay than Brewer, Old Town, Orono, Hampden. Who would want to work in Bangor? Time to get you employees up to par with the other area municipalities… Stop moving staues around town at a cost of $25K and paying 17 times more for welfare then the City of Brewer does.
I agree in principle but the Paul Bunyan statue does need to be moved. Free Paul!
http://www.bangorbytes.com/p/free-paul.html
Paul is fine where he is in my opinion. The waterfront idea is neat however. Are you talking somewhere near railroad street? When the new arena is finished, it will be our gateway mascot for the city. It always has been.
Yes, someplace on the Waterfront near Railroad Street. From there he could be seen from the river, from the bridges, and by waterfront visitors. I think that’s a more appropriate spot as a gateway into Bangor’s historic downtown area. At the current location, he stares into a parking garage and is dwarfed by the surrounding buildings.
kinda cool idea. would he be facing the river or facing the visitors?
Both. If he were positioned at an angle near the corner of Railroad & Main, he could look downriver and also greet visitors entering Bangor. It would surely be a hit with concert-goers, who could take their picture with Paul.
What would he look like on the Cole Museum property greeting vistors coming into Bangor? One could see him from 95 or during some plane landings and takeoffs.
That statue is ugly. Getting rid of it would be the best idea.
Since we have to bond for the areana it is good news for the city. The state bonds for 2.7…
Joe the revenue stream from hollywood slots were to fix the roads around my neighborhood. That money could have been used to lower property taxes. so it is a cost to the taxpayer.
Next I was watching tv5 and council members are already bragging about where they will spend the savings.. So if you spend the savings is it a savings???
Lots of spin coming from both Cianbro and City Hall lately. I’ll feel much more informed after the arena is built and we have some actual numbers. Until then, this is all just spin.
Where to spend the savings? Waterfront Concerts needs a permanent home. Let’s do this. It would be a two -for- one at this point. Paid back over five years. Just a thought.
I would bet the man overseeing the project for the city at Cross arena is getting 150k a year. Another retired city employee. He just retire as city engineer. So how much are you saving Debbie. I think they should have called it Taxpayers arena since we are footing the bill.
You would lose that bet be glad to take your money though
Slot revenue stream is Bangor taxpayer money,
Just a thought, but those extra 1200-1800 seats that many of us wanted seemed to indeed be “in the budget” so to speak.