Brightline is preparing to apply for state and federal permits to raise an additional $ 1 billion through tax-exempt bonds for private activities to complete and upgrade the high-speed line under construction from Miami to Orlando.
However, there could be a $ 20 million problem in the proposal based on some reactions it drew in Florida on Wednesday Development finance company. Board meeting.
Brightline holdings, the parent company of the private high-speed passenger train operator, gave the board a briefing on request on Wednesday. Brightline officials essentially assured the board that all is going well with the high-speed railroad’s development (despite the loss of 18 months of operations due to the coronavirus crisis). They advised that now is the time to fund the last $ 1 billion or so of construction.
The final financing package would provide capital to complete the construction of the currently running new railroad tracks from Orlando International Airport to Cocoa; Complete double tracking and route improvements from Cocoa to West Palm Beach; additional tracking in the corridor from West Palm Beach to Miami; and new inline stations in Boca Raton and Aventura.
Combined with the two previous rounds of Brightline’s private-sector bonds, the latest package would increase Brightline’s private-sector bond funding to $ 3.7 billion and the total investment in the rail project to around $ 6 billion.
Brightline continues to expect to complete the Orlando Line by the end of 2022 and begin shipping passengers between Orlando and South Florida in early 2023. Brightline expects the 235-mile drive from Miami to Orlando to be charged at $ 95, which company officials say will be faster than cars, cheaper and more convenient than planes, and safer than both.
You expect the bonds to sell easily.
“Investors value our credit because we have a unique, irreplaceable and permanent infrastructure package in one of America’s best travel markets,” said Brightline Chief Financial Officer Jeff Swiatek.
Wednesday’s meeting was not a formal hearing as Brightline has not yet made a formal request for government approval to seek government approval to sell bonds for private activities. This request could come as early as next month.
The briefing that Brightline offered on Wednesday drew widespread support, praise and appreciation from board members and others.
Strong support was only offered for the route from Miami to Orlando on Wednesday. Almost all of the capital Brightline wants to fund would be used on this route. No one raised any objections or concerns about the use of private activity bonds for this trail. Everyone seemed to like the idea.
However – hidden in the proposal’s line item details, as outlined on Wednesday by Swiatek and the Chief Executive Officer of Brightline Holdings Mike Reininger, was a small $ 20 million donation to help plan the company’s next major venture, a proposed high-speed rail line connecting Orlando International Airport with Tampa.
This Orlando to Tampa proposal includes a section that would run from the Orlando Airport down State Road 417 to a stop at Walt Disney World. Brightline is currently taking this path before federal agencies for a review of the National Environmental Policy Act.
It was the segment of the SR 417 that spawned the daggers on Wednesday.
Numerous speakers representing Universal Orlando, the International Drive Resort Area Chamber of Commerce, and various other International Drive Area interests expressed astonishment, skepticism, and even anger that Brightline would take this route instead of 528 State Road with a stop Down in the International Drive area, maybe the Orange County Convention Center. Many of the speakers represented a group called Orlando’s RightRail Coalition fighting the Disney route plan.
For those recalling the heated political battles over the previous high-speed rail schedule in the 2000s – and many of the RightRail players in Orlando are veterans of that conflict – the Disney-only route would be compared to an international drive-stop alternative one of the hottest arguments remembered.
That hasn’t changed.
“We want this route from Miami to Orlando to be successful. In fact, I had my CFO stand up before this exalted body and give a supportive testimony. So imagine our surprise when the new President of Brightline walks in and says they’ll just bypass us after we work with them, ”said John McReynolds, Senior Vice President of External Affairs at Universal Parks & Resorts.
The $ 20 million in Brightline’s new funding proposal isn’t even intended for the Disney segment Ben Porritt, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Brightline. The aim is to study the Interstate 4 segment on the Disney to Tampa route, a study that would be good if the train goes to International Drive or not, he said.
But the $ 20 million – which McReynolds described as a nugget buried in the larger proposal – opened the old wound.
Orlando-based RightRail speakers recalled the reasons why the state’s High Speed Rail Commission chose the International Drive route over the Disney route in 2010. They raised serious concerns about the environmental impact along SR 417 to all kinds of transportation problems in Orlando and are providing passengers for the company.
Marc Reicher, As a representative of Hilton Orlando and several other representatives of the RightRail coalition, Brightline insisted on misleading itself and the authorities if it believes there will be a government environmental permit for the SR in just a year or two, if any 417 route.
He and others warned that even $ 20 million – 2% of Brightline’s proposed new funding package, little more than a rounding error – is enough spending on something they oppose to make the entire package unsuitable for tax-exempt bonds in their opinion do.
“I think it’s a big mistake,” said Reicher. “It seems to me that when we issue public promotional bonds, we should be paying attention to the public. We should unite as a community. “
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from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/brightline-wants-an-additional-1-billion-in-funding-from-miami-to-orlando/
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