Stockton port set $31 million bond issuance

Stockton port set $31 million bond issuance Officials at the Port of Stockton this week approved two bond issuances totaling just over $31 million to cover debt and numerous infrastructure upgrades.
   The port's annual profits do not cover the cost of proposed improvements, which include street, sewer, rail and electric projects, but the port estimates that with projected growth port profits can easily cover the annual payments on the bonds.
   The port acquired more than 1,500 acres in 2000 from the transfer of a closed Navy depot adjacent to the port. Since then, port officials have been scrambling to upgrade the infrastructure and utility services to the property. The port has already signed numerous tenants to the existing warehouse structures on the facility.
   Chief among those is a major bridge egress project to the property that is set to become the new entrance to the port.
   The Stockton port commissioners approved the two issuances Monday, with $21.8 million set to be tax-exempt bonds and $9.5 million in taxable bonds.
   The new bonds will result in annual payments for the port of $3.3 million, rising to $3.9 million in 2010 and dropping back to $3 million a year until a scheduled payoff in 2018. While $8.5 million from the two issuances will go to paying off higher-interest bonds already on the books, the port will continue to pay about $1.3 million per year for a state loan and bonds issued in 2001.
   Last year the port reported revenues of $30.3 million with a year-end profit of just over $3 million.