Utah County Academy of Sciences

Utah County Academy of Sciences, a public charter school located on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, required a funding solution in order to expand its campus facilities. The State approved the school to increase enrollment from 500 to 1200 students, but the Orem facility could only support approximately 400 students. The school entered into a contract to purchase a building in Provo, Utah located approximately 3.5 miles from the Orem Campus and planned on utilizing revenue bonds to acquire the property and renovate the building to accommodate the increase in enrollment.

The Solution

Crews was able to work with Utah County Academy of Sciences to provide funds for the acquisition and construction of the new facility. Our firm acted as the sole senior manager and underwrote 30-year, non-rated tax-exempt bonds and 10 year non-rated taxable bonds.  The first 18 years were financed on a fixed rate basis and the last 12 years were issued as reset bonds. The reset bonds contained a fixed rate for the first five years and then reset at different intervals thereafter between an interest rate floor and interest rate ceiling.  In addition, the bonds were sold with a three year 101% call declining to par in year five. The bonds were secured by revenues of the school and a mortgage on the new facility.

The Difference

Crews worked hard to serve our client in extraordinary ways by:

  1. Assisting the school in accessing the capital markets for the first time in order to add a new campus.
  2. Provided financing with flexible terms to the school.
  3. Issuing a portion of the tax-exempt bonds as variable rate bonds to take advantage of shorter term rates and including an interest rate ceiling to protect against interest rate risk.