County approves financing for Marlins stadium - South Florida Business Journal:

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million gap in bond funding for abaseball stadium. The 9-3 vote clearx the way for locking in the interesg rate onthe fixed-rate bonds – and construction of the much-debated and long-awaitef stadium in Miami’s Littl Havana. The park is supposed to be finishedby 2012, with preliminarhy construction work to begin Wednesday. Commissioners voted afterd midnight Wednesday to allow for a higher cap on one of the bonds being sold in order to coverthe county’s commitmentr on the $640 million stadium and The 7.5 percent interest rate cap was changed to 8.2 perceng on the bond tied to convention taxes.
The fact that the conventiom bond will sell at a higher interesg rate will result in lower revenuwefor Miami-Dade, County Managed George Burgess explained to commissioners. That createfd the need for more money, so Floridaq Marlins President David Samsojn promised to coverthe $6.2 million funding gap. As a resultf of the change, the county is on the hook for $342 milliob in short-term financing, instead of $347 "I feel comfortable with the agreement. The Marlin will step up to the plate and pay theadditionalp $6 million.
At the end of the day, the taxpayerss are not going to be on the hook for theadditionalo monies,” Commissioner Bruno Barreiro said after the Katy Sorenson, Carlos Gimenex and Sally Heyman were the threer ‘no’ votes. The debate started at 7 but stopped at9 p.m. to allow attorneys to make changew in thefinancing package. The second chunk of bondse which carry a variable rate will be priced startingtJuly 13, with final closing on the county’xs portion of the bond financing package set for no latef than July 14. Earlier Wednesday, commissioners approvec a change thatraised ’s status as a creditor in the financing package.
Wachovia, which is providing up to a $100 millionm letter of credit, requested that it be paid firstr fromthe county’s list of creditors. The votees on Tuesday and early Wednesday morning followed two otherebig developments. On June 19, city commissionerd voted to approve the necessary changes to the Marlins package to clear the way forthe county’s changex Tuesday. A circuit court judge also ruledd in favor of the county in one count of a civil lawsuitt that could have prevented the countg from selling the necessary bonde to buildthe project.
That case is on appeal in as is a lawsuit filed by auto dealerNormabn Braman, who last November lost his legal bid to declare the stadium’ds funding plan unconstitutional. Work on the baseball stadium site is set tobegih Wednesday. Crews will officially break grouncd onJuly 18. In April, county commissioners approved issuing bonds totaling a maximumof $536 millionh toward construction of the $640 37,000-seat ballpark.