$22,980,000
The Economic Development Corporation of the Village of Chelsea (MI)
Revenue and Revenue Refunding Bonds
April 1998

United Methodist Retirement Communities is a multilevel operator of long-term care facilities and services, as well as a partner with Chelsea Community Hospital in the Silver Maples project.  UMRC has recently become more proactive in exploring a variety of business ventures.  Consequently, access to capital will become a key determinant in UMRC's ability to realize its goals.

 First River Advisory was engaged to provide capital planning and financial advisory services over an extended period of time.  Highlights of the services provided by First River Advisory are listed below:

• managing the credit process which resulted in UMRC obtaining an investment-grade rating, enabling UMRC to access the "mainstream" long-term, fixed-rate capital market without credit support;
• evaluating strategic opportunities that either required capital financing or influenced the capital financing for other initiatives;
• managing the capital financing elements of an expansion project and coordinating them with planning, design and regulatory approval processes; and
• working closely with the governing board to present alternatives for decision-making.

A $23 million bond issue was sold during the week of April 6, 1998.  In addition to providing financing for its expansion project, this bond issue advance refunded UMRC's Series 1993 Bonds.  The advance refunding component produced present value debt service savings of over $500,000.

UMRC also requested that First River Advisory evaluate the costs, benefits, risks and opportunities relating to its participation in a joint venture with a private-sector developer in constructing and managing a senior citizens' housing project.  Part of this assignment entailed a review of the capital financing plan, which features a non-recourse loan from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority from a pool of tax-exempt bonds.

As a result of its performance on this engagement, the UMRC governing board and management invited First River Advisory to perform additional services pursuant to a retainer arrangement through August 1999.  Services included resolving accounting issues relating to the advance refunding of the Series 1993 Bonds, performing arbitrage rebate calculations and acting as Dissemination Agent under the Continuing Disclosure Agreement.

Reference: 
Don House, former Chief Financial Officer
  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it