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Description:
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Grand County, Colorado (the “County”) is seeking proposals from prospective underwriters regarding the anticipated issuance of Certificates of Participation, Series 2025 (the “2025 COPs”). Proceeds of the 2025 COPs will be used to finance a project fund of approximately $22 million to finance the construction of a new Emergency Management Services (“EMS”) Facility. The County anticipates the total cost of the new facility to be approximately $26 million, although it expects to finalize project costs upon executing a Guaranteed Maximum Price contract for the project later in 2024 or early in 2025. The difference in proceeds between the project fund from the 2025 COPs and the anticipated total cost will be funded with anticipated grant funding that will be received by the County throughout 2025. The County has also identified available cash to cover these project costs if the total amount of anticipated grant funding is not received.
The 2025 COPs will be paid from base rental payments to be made by the County to a Trustee pursuant to the terms of a lease of real property. The payment of base rentals will be subject to annual budgetary appropriation by the County.
The County reserves the right to reject all proposals, to negotiate with any prospective firm, and to seek financing through other means. If the 2025 COPs are not delivered for any reason, the proposing firms will have no recourse against the County, its financial advisor, bond, or special counsel, or any of their affiliates, agents or representatives for any expenses, losses, damages, or liability incurred.
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Publication Date/Time:
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10/16/2024 10:22 AM
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Closing Date/Time:
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Open Until Contracted
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Contact Person:
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Curtis Lange, Finance Director
clange@co.grand.co.us
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Qualifications:
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The County is seeking an underwriter with specific experience in the sale and marketing of COPs for Colorado local governments. The County will take into consideration the firm’s specific experience with similar COPs, the relevant experience of the public finance and underwriting professionals, and the ability of the firm to access various sectors of the tax-exempt market. The County expects to select the firm which it believes will best meet its overall expectations for the proposed financing and will not necessarily select the firm with the lowest proposed fees.
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Special Requirements:
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Please limit your overall response to the items listed below to a maximum of 10 pages, excluding a cover letter. Additional or expanded information may be attached as appendices to the proposal. The County encourages each respondent to provide full and complete information to the extent that it may directly apply to the proposed transaction, but encourages each respondent avoid the use of repetitious or boilerplate language. Please submit your proposal via e-mail no later than 3:00 pm MT on November 13, 2024 to:
Curtis Lange Grand County, Colorado clange@co.grand.co.us
Mattie Prodanovic Hilltop Securities Inc. Mattie.Prodanovic@hilltopsecurities.com
REQUIRED RESPONSE ITEMS – 10 Pages Maximum
Please provide responses to these items in the general sequence presented. Responses may be combined to economize on space or to improve clarity. The County discourages the use of boilerplate language and exhibits and encourages each proposing firm to prioritize its responses within the stated page limitation according to its sense of the relative importance of the information.
1. Please provide a brief overview of your firm and its municipal underwriting activity in both the national and Colorado markets. Responses may include but are not limited to the following: description of municipal bond sales force, net capital position, past practice in underwriting unsold balances, etc.
2. Please discuss your firm’s experience underwriting Colorado COPs. Please submit a list of rated or insured, senior-managed COP issues underwritten by your firm for Colorado issuers since January 1, 2021. (This list may be submitted in an Exhibit which will not be included in the page limit.) Please include at least one case study for a transaction that you worked on that is similar to what the County is contemplating and highlight any specific experience with COPs for Colorado Counties.
3. Please identify the public finance personnel assigned to this transaction and provide brief descriptions of their relevant experience with Colorado COPs. Please identify the underwriting or trading desk personnel who will be responsible for pricing this issue and provide brief descriptions of their relevant experience.
4. Please provide your thoughts on securing a credit rating for the 2025 COPs and identify any potential credit concerns. The County currently does not have a rating from any rating agency.
5. Please provide a projected -qualified tax-exempt interest rate scale for the County’s 2025 COPs. Your scale should assume an optional redemption date of December 1, 2035, principal maturities starting on December 1, 2026, and ending on December 1, 2045. The issue should generate a $22 million project fund, $250,000 for issuance costs, plus the proposed underwriting spread. The first interest payment will be on June 1, 2025, and principal payments should be adjusted to create approximately equal annual payments. Include the expected coupon structure your firm would recommend and a spread analysis of the projected yields to the MMD AAA scale as of November 6, 2024.
6. Please provide your proposed fee structure for the 2025 COPs, including any reimbursable costs you would submit to the County for payment. In addition, please indicate whether you anticipate retaining underwriter’s counsel, and, if so, what related costs the County would be expected to absorb as well as the name of the firm you intend to use.
7. Please submit any additional information which you believe would be useful to the County in evaluating your performance on similar transactions as well as your qualifications to serve as underwriter.
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Miscellaneous:
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Tentative Schedule of Events
October 21, 2024 Distribution of RFP to selected firms
November 13 Proposals delivered to the County
November 22 Underwriter Selected
March 11 Projected sale of COPs
March 25 Projected closing of COPs
Any information requests, questions about the selection process or questions about the financing should e-mailed to the County’s Financial Advisor (contact information provided above).
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Related Documents:
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