Ballpark

SAG was the lead advisor to the District of Columbia Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, leading a multi-faceted team that successfully relocated the MLB-owned Expos to Washington DC.  As part of that effort, SAG helped create the finance plan for the new ballpark, utilizing team payments, ballpark generated tax increment revenues, a business gross receipts tax, and a utility tax.  The Nationals began play in Washington in April of 2005 in RFK Stadium.  RFK Stadium will remain their interim home stadium until the new baseball stadium is completed.

SAG helped community leaders create a unique plan to finance renovations and improvements to San Jose’s convention center.  In a 2002 referendum, the project almost garnered the two-thirds voter approval required to increase the 10% hotel tax by 4% to fund the project.  64.8% of the voters approved of the increase.  Following the failed referendum, SAG created a unique finance plan utilizing a never before used, unique “non-contiguous Mello-Roos District” to raise the hotel tax the 4% through a vote of the hotel owners, versus the residents. 

Convention Center Complex

SAG led the effort to finance a new convention center and 500-room headquarter hotel utilizing tax-exempt bonds repaid by a combination of hotel operating profits, utilities tax, hotel taxes and restaurant taxes.  Our services included structuring the finance plan, procuring and negotiating with the developer and manager, hiring the underwriter, leading the legal team, and overall transaction management.  The hotel opened in 2006. 

Charlotte Westin

SAG worked with the City to finance a 700-room hotel adjacent to the City’s convention center.  SAG led a process evaluating the viability of combining both public and private financing components.  The capital structure included private bank debt from a consortium of four banks, private mezzanine from the hotel operator, private equity, a public grant financed through the issuance of tax-exempt COPs back by city-wide hotel tax revenues, and parking conduit bonds whereby private parking profits were credit enhanced by the city-wide hotel tax collections.  The hotel opened in 2002.

San Antonio Headquarter Hotel

SAG represented a private union pension investment trust in structuring their equity participation in the new hotel development.  SAG created an overall hotel financing plan utilizing a federal empowerment zone to help provide for a financing gap.  The investment trust ultimately did not participate in the transaction; however, the City implemented the empowerment zone plan with another investment group.  The project is under development.

Puerto Rico Convention Center District

SAG prepared a Hotel Occupancy Tax Projection utilized in the bond offering official statement for the refinancing of the District’s debt.  The Projection outlined the issues facing potential investors, rating agencies and the bond insurers regarding the viability of the tax revenues to provide for debt service payments.  The analysis addressed the national economy, hotel industry, Puerto Rico economy, and outlined the basis for the projection.  SAG utilized our proprietary Tax Revenue Regression Model to project future tax collections.