Friday, April 18, 2008

Blog welcomes Seattle Northwest Securities

The blog is attracting more and more readers these days. This relatively new arrival, Seattle Northwest Securities, is the agency that sells bonds for the Edmonds School District. They have also been very involved in the process of evaluating, selecting and working with the new developers for the current Lynnwood High School. It is Seattle Northwest Securities that will coordinate the funding based upon anticipated revenue from groundleasing the Lynnwood Athletic Complex and adjoining high school.

What is rather interesting is that everything I am reading seems to suggest that the matter has not yet been resolved. What if this hearing in June prevents the Lynnwood Athletic Complex from being eliminated? That might have an impact upon anticipated revenues. I can see why Seattle Northwest Securities might be interested in the blog.

Here is a little bit of free advertising for Seattle Northwest Securities. If you have a public resource you would like to strip away from your community, give them a call.

SNW is an innovator in the world of school finance, both public and private K-12 and higher education. We have created plans to help districts reduce the cost of housing for teachers, implemented plans to reduce districts' pension costs, and shown how districts and developers can work together to finance new classroom space.

Our work with schools is based on the tools we’ve created to help districts borrow funds for capital projects while easing and controlling the impacts on taxpayers. We help districts with long-range tax rate planning, bond ratings, applications for state bond guarantees, and annual reviews of levies for bond payments. We analyze refinancing options, meet districts' financing objectives through innovative structuring, and design and implement borrowings that, in certain situations, do not require voter approval. Financing for public institutions is heavily regulated by state law and influenced by the form and amount of support provided by state government. Private institution financing, on the other hand, is more akin to private finance - a function of financial performance and resources. Elements commonly evaluated for both types of institutions include demand (applications and selectivity), enrollment profile (SAT scores and return rates), comparative tuition and fees, and breadth of programs. SNW has the technical expertise necessary to manage financing for both public and private colleges and universities.

Institutions of higher education come to SNW for our expertise regarding certain developments in higher education finance. The first is stand-alone project financing (evaluated on a "project" basis), which may cause the institution to incur higher borrowing costs but can offer the benefits of more rapid completion and lower construction costs. The second development is the consolidation of an institution’s debt under a "global" general obligation pledge of all legally available funds.

Each state's laws differ as they apply to higher education financing choices and powers. SNW's in-depth experience throughout the Northwest and our unique qualifications give us the ability to assist public and private higher education institutions with all of their financing needs.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome Seattle Northwest Securities! Always good to have new readers. Hope you learn lots from the Blog.

Anonymous said...

It is unclear to me whether SNWS is just arriving at the scene or has been the architect of a plan which has crashed and is in need of triage.

Please tell us that the voters of Edmonds SD haven't voted bonds to build a new high school on the promise that the ground lease for the old building will add substantially to the funds available for future capital projects and a firm is ONLY NOW coming in to figure out how much money that might be.

Please tell us that "unforseen" issues are requiring a "review" of the plan.

Or maybe we don't want to know that after all.

ESD15.org said...

SNWS is a reputable agency. I have no doubt they are doing everything that they can to guide the District through this process.

However, they are just forecasting revenues based upon current conditions. If those conditions change, anticipated revenue will be impacted.

If the District ends up with less dirt to lease, the value of any front-funding would be impacted.

With the passage of the simple majority threshold, every capital expenditure should see the light of day.

Why hand a fortune of capital revenue (on an annual basis) to people that shovel business to friends. Voters should have a chance to sink a bad idea - before it gets much worse.

Thank you for reading.

Anonymous said...

Just the point. Did SNWS consult for the District BEFORE the Lynnwood High bond vote, making projections on the entire complex (ball fields included) and are now coming back to reassess since it looks like the District may have ASSUMED that the city would go along with giving up the ball fields but now is having second (first?) thoughts about not doing so?

Or perhaps the District failed to understand the correct status of the ball fields and what control they had over them. Or perhaps there was a quid pro quo with someone at C of L that didn't work out as planned.

Frankly, I always thought that it was a weird physical situation to plan to build a major strip mall with a narrow access road BEHIND some city ball fields; it just never made sense to me. How much $$$ has the District and City put into those fields in the past 10-12 years?

ESD15.org said...

The District always assumed that the entire site would be re-developed.

I say "re-developed" because the volume of soils removed and replaced to accommodate the FieldTurf installation would surprise even the most seasoned developer.

Also, playfields should not be seen as undeveloped land. Constructing those playfields was no simple undertaking and I would suspect the money spent on maintaining them would be no small sum.

Every developer's proposal assumed the entire site would be developed. Every developer's anticipated profit was built upon such an assumption. Trim away the fields and the project may not be worth the time and effort.