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RECOVERY ZONE BONDS

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) includes a new economic development tool available to local communities called Recovery Zone Bonds.  A “Recovery Zone” is an area having significant poverty, unemployment, home foreclosures and/ or other forms of economic distress.  Through ARRA, the Recovery Zone Bonds were allocated to each county, which was then responsible for identifying its own recovery “zones.”  The County of Bucks determined that the Recovery Zones in the County shall be comprised of the entire County of Bucks.

There are two types of Recovery Zone Bonds, each with a volume cap allocation that limits the amount of recovery zone financing that can be utilized: 

Facility Bonds (Volume cap = $7,450,000) – Private use

Economic Development Bonds (Volume cap = $4,967,000) – Municipal use

Recovery Zone Bonds can be used for the purpose of promoting development or other economic activity in a recovery zone, including capital expenditures for property located in the recovery zone, expenditures for public infrastructure and construction of public facilities, and expenditures for job training and educational purposes; and

Similar to traditional tax exempt financing, the recovery zone program requires a bank to lend the funds to the borrower.  Funds can be loaned via mortgages or bonds.  The BCIDA’s role is to serve as the required conduit to access the recovery zone financing, to manage the allocation and review process.

For complete application click here.

Questions?  Please contact Robert Cormack, Execuitve Director of the Bucks County Economic Development Corporation or Jim Pawlikowski, Loan Manager (BCEDC) or via phone 215.348.9031.