Backers of a new Anchorage sports complex that can accommodate year-round soccer, track and field, baseball and football events are seeking state involvement for financing up to $12 million in bonding for the facility.
Board members of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority on May 11 approved a preliminary application to determine eligibility for tax-exempt conduit revenue bond financing for the proposed Anchorage Sportsplex Inc. project, near the intersection of the Minnesota Drive and Raspberry Road.
Anchorage Sportsplex Inc., a nonprofit corporation, proposes to built the 177,000-square-foot facility with an inflatable dome structure on property adjacent to a former seafood plant remodeled for use by Grace Alaska, a nonprofit corporation affiliated with ChangePoint, an evangelical Christian Church.
The project would include a regulation-sized soccer field, a 400-meter, six-lane running track, batting and pitching cages and a concession area. Fixed bleacher seating would accommodate 800 people.
Grace Alaska purchased the vacant seafood plant from AIDEA last June for $24.5 million, in a partnership with Wisconsin-based Alliance Development Corp. Gene Desjarlais, a contractor who is president of Anchorage Sportsplex, said he and three other officials with the sports complex board are members of that church, but others on the board are not.
Desjarlais said the complex, slated for completion by December, has already been solidly booked for use by soccer and other sports teams.
Jim McMillan, AIDEA's deputy director for credit and business development, said the team planning the sports complex had already found an investment banker in Minneapolis willing to underwrite and purchase the bonds.
"Our job is to review the application and determine whether we think it qualifies for tax-exempt financing," he said.
The project still faces a credit review and due diligence by AIDEA and others before being brought before AIDEA's board for approval.
McMillan said the next step is to get all parties involved working on documentation for the bond issue, which could come as early as 30 days, but more likely in 60 days. Financing the tax-exempt conduit revenue bond puts neither the assets or credit of AIDEA at risk, he said. A $12 million bond would be within the normal range of such bonds issued by AIDEA, he said.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.
