EXCLUSIVE: Pawtucket to Borrow $48.450 Million to Fund Soccer Stadium, Say Preliminary Bond Docs

EXCLUSIVE: Pawtucket to Borrow $48.450 Million to Fund Soccer Stadium, Say Preliminary Bond Docs

The City of Pawtucket is poised to borrow $48,450,000 to fund a minor league soccer stadium. Under the financing scheme, Pawtucket will not own the stadium -- it will be owned by a group led by California-based businessman Brett Johnson.

In March of this year, Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien announced that the city was delaying the issuance of $27 million in bonds due to the uncertainty of the financial markets.

“Given the market challenges of the last year, including a global pandemic, rising interest rates, tighter market conditions, and a looming banking crisis, the State financing and private debt components of the capital stack have not made fiscal sense to close to the date,” a spokesperson for Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien said in a statement in March.

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Today, interest rates are even higher than in March; a second war has broken out.

 

 

 

 

Now, eight months later, the City of Pawtucket is moving forward with the bond package. 

GoLocal has secured a copy of new bond offering documents that unveil that the total amount Pawtucket is poised to borrow totals $48,450,000.

The document marked the Preliminary Limited Offering Memorandum and dated October 19, 2023, unveils that The Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency — on behalf of the city would fund the privately owned Tidewater Landing stadium.

According to the documents — the price of the stadium continues to climb. As GoLocal reported last week, the cost of the stadium has dramatically increased.

GoLocal secured a key consulting document for the proposed City of Pawtucket’s bond issuance to finance the proposed minor league soccer stadium, which unveiled that the cost of the minor league soccer stadium has jumped up yet again — by an additional $13.7 million — now, to $137.7 million.

In 2022, the developer of the stadium, Brett Johnson, projected the cost of the stadium to be $81 million. Now, the price of the stadium has increased by 70% in less than two years, according to the team and the league’s consultant — the Chicago-based firm Johnson Consulting.

 

 

 

 

Dimeo Construction to be Paid Nearly $90M

According to the bond documents, Dimeo Construction Company’s contract guarantees a maximum price of $89,456,837.

Despite the amount of public funding pouring into the project, the stadium will be owned exclusively by the Tidewater Stadium, LLC, headed by Johnson.

According to the bond documents, the stadium will be completed by March 13, 2025.

 

Municipal Advisor Quit Over "Concerns"

Ten days ago, GoLocal unveiled a copy of a letter to the City of Pawtucket and the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency from its municipal advisor announcing its resignation over concerns about the stadium deal and the bond offering.

In a letter to Mayor Grebien and Bianca Policastro, the executive director of the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency, three top Hilltop Securities executives notified the city of the firm's resignation.

“As you know we have detailed concerns about the proposed stadium transaction and bond offering. As a fiduciary to the City of Pawtucket and its development agency…we must do what we believe is in the City’s and PRA’s best interest,” said the letter.

“Therefore, please let this serve as Hilltop’s notice to the city and the PRA of our withdrawal as municipal advisor on this bond offering,” continued the letter. The letter was dated August 16, 2023.

Until the GoLocal report, the letter had not been made public.