The terminal lobby at Richmond International Airport. (File photo courtesy Todd Wright/RIC)
A month after deferring a high-stakes vote on a bid to bring certain fueling and maintenance operations in-house, the governing board for Richmond International Airport is set to consider a multimillion-dollar bond issuance to help finance two improvement projects.
The Capital Region Airport Commission is considering issuing $30.5 million in bonds to cover costs to replace RIC’s Concourse A and B passenger boarding bridges, and renovations to restrooms in the terminal building.
The revenue bonds would finance the projects, which are budgeted to cost $24 million and $6 million, respectively. The bonds would be paid back using so-called “passenger facility charges” that would be imposed as part of the financing approach.
The bonds would provide a form of bridge financing for the projects, the costs of which are expected to exceed the roughly $10 million in revenue forecast from the passenger facility charges. The amount of the charges is not specified in documents related to the issuance, which the commission will consider at its monthly meeting Tuesday.
The bond financing would allow the projects to be implemented over the next two to three fiscal years, according a report from financial adviser Davenport & Co. The $30.5 million in bonds would be purchased by Huntington Public Capital Corp., one of seven respondents to a request for proposals in July.
Other respondents were Capital One, JPMorgan, M&T Bank, Truist, and Webster Bank, as well as Raymond James and T.D. Bank, which provided a combined proposal.
Huntington’s proposal had the lowest fixed interest rate, at 3.95%. It also allows the commission to prepay the loan by up to $3 million annually without penalty, providing the possibility of repayment of all bonds in seven years and reducing the term of the loan. Repayment is required in 13 years.
The commission has issued similar bonds three times previously, according to a report from Davenport. It issued $21 million in bonds in 1999 to finance eligible projects, $51 million in 2005 to refinance the remaining ’99 bonds and finance additional projects, and $13.1 million in 2016 to refinance the remaining ’05 bonds, which were fully repaid in 2020.
This latest bond issuance would require approval from the Henrico County Board of Supervisors, which is expected to consider the plan at its Oct. 8 meeting. The bond sale is anticipated to close Nov. 21.
A public hearing will precede the commission’s vote at Tuesday’s meeting, which starts at 8 a.m. in the terminal building boardroom.
The vote comes a month after the commission deferred consideration of a hot-button proposal that would allow RIC to assume control of fixed-base operator (FBO) services from privately owned Richmond Jet Center and Million Air Richmond. The deferral followed a steady stream of vocal opposition against the proposal in preceding weeks.