City of Waukegan | Lake County, Illinois | $12,815,000 General Obligation Bonds, Series 2021A and $31,180,000 General Obligation Bonds, Series 2021B
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City of Waukegan | Lake County, Illinois | $12,815,000 General Obligation Bonds, Series 2021A and $31,180,000 General Obligation Bonds, Series 2021B
On March 4th, 2021, the City of Waukegan, Illinois issued $43,995,000.00 Series 2021A and Series 2021B Bonds. Bernardi Securities, Inc. served as Senior Managing Underwriter on the transaction working closely with the City’s advisor to ensure a successful borrowing for the City. Bond proceeds were used for financing/refinancing certain redevelopment project costs under the Illinois TIF Act in connection with the redevelopment of the McGaw Business Center TIF Redevelopment Project Area (the “Redevelopment Project Area”).
A few years back, the city leadership and a local developer had a vison to transform 225 acres of underutilized space on Waukegan Road, between Route 137/Buckley Road and Route 120/Belvidere Road, immediately off Interstate 94. The Redevelopment Project Area is located on the former Cardinal Health, Inc. campus and currently consists of approximately 2,200,000 square feet of industrial/warehouse space, with approximately 1,100,000 square feet of additional industrial space currently under construction.
Today, that site has been transformed adding tens of millions of dollars to the tax base and has created many jobs offered by various Fortune 500 companies detailed below.
History of the project: On November 12, 2014, the City adopted Ordinance No. 14-O-123, adopting the tax increment financing provisions of the TIF Act and created the “McGaw Business Center TIF Redevelopment Project Area Special Tax Allocation Fund” (the “Special Tax Allocation Fund”) in connection therewith.
Subsequently, the City entered into a redevelopment agreement with Bridge McGaw Land LLC (the “Redevelopment Agreement”) in connection with the costs of property acquisition, site preparation, environmental remediation, demolition, and the construction of certain public improvements as set forth in the Redevelopment Plan and located within the Redevelopment Project Area (the “Redevelopment Project”). Eleven buildings and over one million square feet of the former Cardinal Health, Inc. campus were demolished over a period of 15 months to make the property ready for new construction. Proceeds of the Bonds will be used to finance or refinance qualified costs of the Redevelopment Project.
The tax year 2014 base year Equalized Assessed Valuation (“EAV”) of the Redevelopment Project Area was $13,115,257. In tax year 2019 the EAV has grown to $35,823,189 and produced additional incremental property tax revenues of $2,760,235. The City anticipates the EAV and incremental property tax revenues to grow as the construction and leasing of the additional buildings are completed and put on the County tax roll.
Current corporate users located in the Redevelopment Project Area include: Amazon, Bolke Miller Company, LLC, Comcast, Walgreens, McKesson, Honeywell, Kalle, Grainger, Yaskawa, Hospira, Eaton, Actavis, Cardinal Health, Diversey, RR Donnelley, Culligan, Abbvie, Nypro, Brown Paper Goods, Zebra, Uline, Leica, Pactiv, Aon Hewitt, Sysmex, Visual Pak, Baxter, Medline, Bax-alta, CDW, Takada, Abbott, Allstate, Tyco, Amerisource Bergen, and Thermoflex.
Bernardi is proud to support the local community and assist in value-add projects for Waukegan residents.
To access the final official statement, please visit link below:
https://emma.msrb.org/P21445184-P21121902-P21533387.pdf
Redevelopment Project Corporate Users & Overview
