The California Enterprise Development Authority (CEDA) is pleased to announce the May 2017 closing of a $6 million tax-exempt financing deal with the Discovery Science Center of Orange County, a private 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1993 and operator of the world class interactive science center known as the Discovery Cube-Orange County, located in Santa Ana. Farmers & Merchants Bank (F&M) served as the bank in this project and is one of the oldest and strongest financial institutions in California. With almost $7 Billion in assets, F&M Bank is one of the top 150 banks in the US, and is a
strong supporter of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt financing.

In July 2016, Discovery acquired, via a merger, ExplorOcean, a California non-profit that has owned and operated a nautical museum facility in Newport Beach. Through this merger, Discovery has since renamed ExplorOcean to Ocean Quest and it now serves as a satellite center for Discovery Cube. All proceeds generated from the facility will be applied to further science learning locally.

The $6 million deal through CEDA finances and refinances acquisition, construction, improvement, and other related costs of the Newport Beach facility. This tax-exempt financing provides Discovery Science Center with low-cost financing, allowing the organization to devote the savings to Ocean Quest’s
educational programs serving youth 14 years of age and under. CEDA is proud to serve as issuer in this deal, supporting valuable educational programs in the local community.

More information about Discovery Cube’s Ocean Quest in
Newport Beach can be found online at: http://www.oceanquestoc.org/.

About CEDA: In 2006, CALED established CEDA, a Joint Powers Authority (JPA), to address gaps in Economic Development financing. CEDA is committed to providing alternative financing options to manufacturers, 501(c)(3) non-profits, and California communities, with the ultimate mission of supporting economic development. To learn more about CEDA, please visit its web site at https://ceda.caled.org/.

In 2006, the California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED) established the California Enterprise Development Authority (CEDA) to address gaps in economic development financing.

CALED sponsored the creation of CEDA, a Joint Powers Authority formed by the Cities of Selma, Lancaster, and Eureka to provide alternative financing options to manufacturers, 501(c)(3) non-profits & California communities, with the ultimate mission of supporting economic development.

Some of CEDA’s 10-Year Highlights:

• $1.9 Billion: Total Amount of bonds/deals authorized (as of February 2017)

• 186: Number of jurisdictions with CEDA membership (as of March 2017)

• $98.4 Million: Amount authorized for largest CEDA deal closed–Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in February 2011

For more of CEDA’s accomplishments and highlights from the past 10 years, pull up the complete online report here.

The Bay Area Chinese Bible Church (“BACBC”) was founded in 1956 and has grown to over 1,000 in attendance on Sundays serving Alameda and surrounding communities.  The church offers worship services and ministries for English, Cantonese, and Mandarin speaking people in every age group.  In 1979, BACBC started Chinese Christian Schools (“CCS”), a department of the Church, to provide quality private Christian school education offering a balanced and comprehensive curriculum, including Mandarin language courses, enrichment classes, and life skills electives.  CCS enrolls over 300 students from Kindergarten to 8^th grade.  In 2016, BACBC expanded CCS to add a licensed preschool which is currently serving over 30 children ages 2 to Pre-K.  In addition to these educational services, BACBC also supports its local community through its involvement with many projects such as canned food and coat drives, “Love Alameda Project” (programs where volunteers participate in beach cleanups, music programs at nursing facilities, and helping at the local health fair), hosting an annual community fun fair, among many other activities.

CEDA closed a financing with BACBC in January 2017 for $12,000,000 to refinance various costs of acquiring and developing an approximately eight-acre educational complex located in Alameda.  This facility includes a nearly 36,000-square-foot educational building with classrooms, offices and meeting rooms and an approximately 30,000-square-foot, one-story building with a gymnasium, multi-purpose rooms, kitchen and nursery and pre-school. This deal also funds the cost of various capital projects, including construction of a new kitchen to provide meals to students and visitors, upgrades and expansions to sports fields, and improvements to the nursery and pre-school.  This tax-exempt financing with CEDA produces a significant reduction of BACBC’s debt service payments, resulting in increased cash-flow available to support its school programs and services.

More information about the Bay Area Chinese Bible Church and its various services can be found online at: http://www.bacbc.org.

About CEDA:  In 2006, CALED established CEDA, a Joint Powers Authority (JPA), to address gaps in Economic Development financing.   CEDA is committed to providing alternative financing options to manufacturers, 501(c)(3) non-profits, and California communities, with the ultimate mission of supporting economic development.  To learn more about CEDA, please visit its web site at https://ceda.caled.org/.

Bay Area Chinese Bible Church Closing reception, February 2017

Since 1969, the Orange County Bar Foundation (OCBF) has operated a wide range of programs oriented at keeping at-risk youth in school, healthy, and drug-free through education, counseling, mentoring, and family strengthening.  The OCBF was initially established as the philanthropic arm of the Orange County Bar Association and, in 1981, the organization became an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit agency due to the success and growth of its services, now aiding hundreds of at-risk youth and their families in Orange County every year.

The OCBF has established partnerships throughout the community to address a spectrum of program needs within educational, health, and safety components.  The organization aims to reach at-risk youth early through filling in service gaps within the community as well as extending and facilitating service networks and linkages.  This includes providing educational opportunities that would not otherwise be available to many of the youth the organization serves.

On February 1, 2017, the OCBF and the California Enterprise Development Authority (CEDA) closed a financing of nearly $2,000,000 to fund the various costs in acquiring, constructing and equipping an approximately 8,000-square-foot, two-story commercial office building in Santa Ana.  The OCBF will be relocating their facilities to this newly-purchased building, retaining all of their 12 full-time and 4 part-time positions.  The low-cost financing will enable them to put debt service savings back into their programs.

More information about the Orange County Bar Foundation and its various programs can be found online at: https://ocbarfoundation.org/.

About CEDA:  In 2006, CALED established CEDA, a Joint Powers Authority (JPA), to address gaps in Economic Development financing.   CEDA is committed to providing alternative financing options to manufacturers, 501(c)(3) non-profits, and California communities, with the ultimate mission of supporting economic development.  To learn more about CEDA, please visit its web site at https://ceda.caled.org/.

Orange County Bar Foundation Closing Reception
From left to right: Helen Schaubmayer (CALED/CEDA), Kirk Dowdell (Dowdell Consulting Group), Jeff Spinelli-Faris (Farmers & Merchants Bank), Gurbax Sahota (CALED/CEDA), and Sam Balisy (Kutak Rock)

CEDA Financing Supports Sonoma Humane Society Market Expansion with Healdsburg Center

On June 18, 2016, the Sonoma Humane Society (SHS), a non-profit organization that provides animal sheltering and adoption services and community programs in its local community, celebrated the Grand Opening of their newly-constructed 7,500 square-foot Healdsburg Center. Bringing this facility to an operational state was a long road.  SHS assumed assets of the non-profit organization, Healdsburg Animal Shelter, when it dissolved in 2014.  Among these assets was a shelter facility which the former owner began constructing in 2011, but ceased in 2013 when the contractor filed for bankruptcy.

SHS found the means to begin construction again; however, they wanted a longer-term solution to finance the costs associated with completing the project and making the facility operational.  In Spring 2016, SHS and CEDA’s financing team began discussing terms of 501(c)(3) non-profit revenue bond financing.  This financing structure was a good fit for the organization who planned to use the loan proceeds to refinance a taxable bank loan associated with development and construction costs for its primary facility, a 34,000 square-foot Santa Rosa Center, in addition to reimbursement of costs for the Healdsburg Center.  The savings associated with this refinance deal provide SHS savings in debt service which can be put back in supporting their various services.  On July 19, 2016, the $2.9 million deal was closed.

CEDA is proud to have served as the Issuer for this deal and to support SHS’s mission and its valuable community programs.  SHS is funded through donation support (55 percent) and fees from its various services.  On average, the “no kill organization” takes in 2,400 animals per year and each animal admitted receives medical care, behavioral assessment, and training while awaiting adoption.  In addition to animal sheltering and adoptions, SHS offers programs such as a low cost spay/neuter clinic, public training services, public veterinary hospital (the third largest in Sonoma County), among others.  SHS employs about 75 staff members and provides volunteer opportunities for 700 individuals.  More information about SHS and its various programs can be found online at: http://sonomahumane.org/.

About CEDA:  In 2006, CALED established CEDA, a Joint Powers Authority (JPA), to address gaps in Economic Development financing.   CEDA is committed to providing alternative financing options to manufacturers, 501(c)3 non-profits, and California communities, with the ultimate mission of supporting economic development.  To learn more about CEDA, please visit its web site at https://ceda.caled.org/.

CEDA Celebrates Manufacturers’ Success and
Supports Their Growth Through Financing

In light of Manufacturing Day℠ 2016 (October 7, 2016), CEDA is proud to announce a recent manufacturing project we helped finance: Bay Photo Lab, a professional quality photographic printing and finishing laboratory in Scotts Valley, CA (Santa Cruz County).  Founded in 1976, Bay Photo Lab specializes in wedding, portrait, sport, school, and landscape photography and provides a variety of products to the photographic community, including digital prints and proofs, large format prints, mounting and framing, canvas prints, and much more.  This manufacturer refinanced existing debt and requested additional funding for new capital expenditures under this $12 million deal.  The savings and expansion opportunities that Bay Photo will experience under this deal enables them to put more money back into operations, retain 300 jobs, and generate up to 20 new jobs over the course of the next two years.  CEDA is pleased to be the Issuer of the Industrial Development Bond (IDB) that made this possible.

CEDA also completed three tax-exempt IDB financings in 2015 with manufacturers throughout the state:

•       Spooner’s Woodworks, Inc. was established in 1980 and has become one of the premier architectural woodwork firms in Southern California specializing in high-end millwork and production casework. The project which Spooner’s financed through CEDA in 2015 included the purchase of an existing industrial building containing approximately 58,000 square feet for the purpose of consolidating operations into a single building aiming to enhance efficiencies and allow the manufacturer to grow its business. Spooner’s expects that the project will assist the company to retain its current 75 employees and add approximately 10 new employees within two years of project completion.

• J. Harris Industrial Water Treatment, Inc. d/b/a Puretec was founded in 1944 and has been owned and operated by four generations of the Harris family.  Puretec is an innovative industrial water services company that designs, engineers, manufactures, distributes, installs and services water treatment and purification systems. Puretec’s systems utilize a variety of technologies, including reverse osmosis, deionization, water softening and numerous filtering technologies that remove suspended particles, bacteria, viruses and gasses.  The IDB financing through CEDA provides Puretec an opportunity to expand its operations at its site in the Silicon Valley.

• Founded in 1951, Gordon Brush Mfg. Co., Inc. is a leading manufacturer of brushes for industrial and commercial applications for a variety of industries and purposes, including aerospace, printed circuit board production, food production, medical, healthcare, forensic investigation and janitorial services. Financing through CEDA’s IDB program helped the company, located in Southern California, to partially fund the acquisition of an industrial building at their project site to expand their operations within the state.  This project financing enables the company to retain approximately 73 jobs and create approximately 44 new jobs.

IDBs are tax-exempt securities issued by cities, counties, and joint powers authorities, such as CEDA, to provide small- to medium-sized manufacturers money for land purchases, building construction, facility expansion, new production equipment acquisition, and solar and energy conservation retrofits. Benefits of IDB financing include below market interest rates, long-term financing, and it is available statewide without limitations to specific areas or communities. Overall, IDB financing reduces total financing costs so more capital can be invested back into the organization’s operations.

About CEDA:  In 2006, CALED established CEDA, a joint powers authority (JPA), to address gaps in Economic Development financing.   CEDA is committed to providing alternative financing options to manufacturers, 501(c)3 non-profits, and California communities, with the ultimate mission of supporting economic development.  More information about CEDA and this tax-exempt financing for manufacturers can be found on CEDA’s web site or contact Helen Schaubmayer at (916) 448-8252 x16 or helen@caled.org.