City Completes $89M in Bond Sales

(Bond sales are making news around many GlobeSt.com markets this morning. For a related story, click here.)

The city's finance director Steve Marcotte tells GlobeSt.com the commercial paper was held by Bank of America. The bulk of the paper was paid off with $56 million worth of long-term obligation bonds. That transaction closed earlier this month. The bonds were acquired by First Albany Capital Inc. at an interest rate of 4.85%. To pay off the rest, the city last week sold another $33 million of revenue bonds to a Citibank subsidiary at an interest rate of 4.24%. That transaction is scheduled to close in about two weeks."We got a much better deal than we expected on the revenue bonds," says Marcotte, who used an online service to sell the bonds. "The LTGO bonds have better security but sold at a higher rate." In addition to the new convention center, the commercial paper was used to add to floors to one of the city's public parking garage, says Marcotte.