Latest news with #PalmBeachAtlantic
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Palm Beach Housing Crunch Spurs $236 Million Muni Deal for Dorms
(Bloomberg) -- Student housing is so tight at Palm Beach Atlantic University that some applicants have chosen not to enroll. A $235.8 million high-yield bond deal is the school's bet to reverse that trend. Where the Wild Children's Museums Are Billionaire Steve Cohen Wants NY to Expand Taxpayer-Backed Ferry The Economic Benefits of Paying Workers to Move At London's New Design Museum, Visitors Get Hands-On Access LA City Council Passes Budget That Trims Police, Fire Spending Palm Beach County will issue the muni bonds on behalf of an arm of Provident Resources Group, an organization that specializes in student housing. Proceeds of the debt will finance the construction of roughly 275 housing units with 990 beds at the Christian college in West Palm Beach, Florida. The deal includes $212.7 million in senior revenue bonds and $23.1 million in subordinate bonds. Both series will include securities with a 40-year tenor, reaching maturity in 2065, according to preliminary offering documents. The debt is expected to price on June 4, and proceeds will fund student housing and a suite of campus amenities, including a dining hall, a health and recreational center with cardio and circuit floors, a weight room and a golf simulator. The project also includes a nine-story parking garage with 740 spaces for students, faculty and staff. Palm Beach Atlantic is investing $9 million of its own funds at the start of the project. Construction begins in June and is expected to wrap between July and August of 2027, according to bond documents. Gilbane Development Company is the real estate developer, while Gilbane Building Company will be handling the construction. JPMorgan is underwriting the deal. An entity associated with Provident will repay the bonds using lease payments from the university tied to the dining, parking and wellness facilities. Rent from students will back the housing portion. 'Blending those two together gets you a stronger projection and the ability to more accurately project cash flows for the long haul,' said Provident President Chris Hicks. Enrollment Pressures Palm Beach Atlantic University was founded in 1968 as a Christian liberal arts college. Full-time undergraduates between the ages of 17 and 20 are generally required to live on campus. But applicants unable to secure housing often withdraw, a challenge the university expects to intensify under a new policy taking effect this fall that raises the on-campus housing requirement to 21, offering documents say. 'There is a significant growth among enrollment at Southern schools, and you can't grow enrollment unless you have a place to put these kids,' said Jennifer Johnston, a senior vice president at Franklin Templeton. 'We're definitely seeing an increase in student housing balances in general.' Palm Beach Atlantic has seen a more than 500% increase in undergraduate applications since 2019, according to bond documents. Competition among universities is also fueling the debt boom. 'You need to have nice facilities, and that's what's driven up so much of this debt issuance for universities in general,' Johnston added. The university currently leases off-campus beds, but that hasn't been enough to meet demand. For the 2025-2026 academic year, it anticipates a shortfall of 456 beds, per the bond documents. Following the construction of the new residence project, undergraduate housing capacity is set to increase by 41%, about 2,217 beds. Many off-campus options are either too costly or require students to share a bedroom. That problem may worsen as rents in West Palm Beach rise. 'There's no such thing in West Palm Beach as cost-effective housing,' Hicks said. As of February 2025, the average rent in the city stood at $2,063, up from $1,972 in April 2024, according to bond documents. The new dormitory's per-bed rent is expected to average $1,152 a month, based on a 12-month lease. For the 2027-2028 academic year, rents for the new units range from $7,752 for a two-bedroom apartment to $8,232 for a unit with an ocean view, per semester. Ratings View Fitch Ratings assigned a BB+ rating to the senior bonds, noting that while the new facilities will enhance student life, their success hinges on continued enrollment momentum, analysts led by Seth Lehman wrote in the report. 'The project has a lot of debt and only a small amount of upfront contributions from the university,' Lehman said in an interview. 'It's a highly leveraged project.' Even so, the university reduces its financial exposure by having Provident as the borrower, he added. The dorms are expected to become a top choice among students. Palm Beach Atlantic University's debt is rated BBB+ by Fitch. The rating stems from the school's 'strategic transformation' from a commuter to a residential university with 'a more national appeal, maintaining its Christian-focused educational mission,' analysts led by Akiko Mitsui said in an April ratings report. The school is also well positioned to benefit from South Florida's evolving economy. As Wall Street firms move operations south, West Palm Beach has gained a reputation as 'Wall Street South,' bringing financial-sector jobs closer to campus. Between 2017 and 2022, a net of 30,000 New York City residents relocated to Florida's Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, transferring $9.2 billion in income, according to the report released April by the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog. YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back? Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To Will Small Business Owners Knock Down Trump's Mighty Tariffs? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Phil Mickelson calls out PGA Tour after it invited one, suspended another after LIV Golf event
Phil Mickelson calls out PGA Tour after it invited one, suspended another after LIV Golf event YouTube golf star Grant Horvat's reported invitation to play a PGA Tour event this summer and the suspension of PGA Tour pro Wesley Bryan have caught the attention of five-time major champion Phil Mickelson. Horvat, a South Fork High grad and former Palm Beach Atlantic golfer, published on social media Wednesday that he'd received a sponsor's invitation to play the PGA Tour's Barracuda Championship. Advertisement The Barracuda Championship, an opposite-field event to the Open Championship, will be played July 17-20 at Old Greenwood in California. An amateur who recently tied for 25th in a minor pro event at Jupiter's Abacoa Golf Club, Horvat took to social media to ask fans for advice on whether he should compete alongside some of the world's best golfers at the PGA Tour event. Horvat is one of the biggest names in YouTube golf with more than a million subscribers to his channel and hundreds of thousands of followers on his Instagram and TikTok accounts. He won the PGA Tour's Creator Classic at The Players Championship in March and hosted LIV Golf's "The Duels" broadcast on his YouTube channel at Trump National Doral Miami. PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: Grant Horvat celebrates with the trophy on the 17th hole green after winning the Creator Classic prior to THE PLAYERS Championship 2025 at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2025 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR) More: How Grant Horvat fared in pro tournament at Jupiter's Abacoa Golf Club Wesley Bryan suspension catches Phil Mickelson's eye Participation in the latter event has temporarily cost professional golfer Wesley Bryan his ability to play PGA Tour events. Advertisement Golf website MondayQ reported Wednesday that Bryan had been suspended indefinitely by the PGA Tour for his participation in "The Duels." The PGA Tour has previously banned tour members, such as Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, who defected to the Saudi-backed tour. Bryan has five career top five finishes and nine top 10 finishes in 134 career PGA Tour events. He joined the PGA Tour in 2017 and has more than $5 million in earnings. Bryan and his brother George also create YouTube videos on their "Bryan Bros Golf" channel, which has more than 500,000 subscribers. Wesley Bryan of Byran Bros Golf reacts on the tenth tee during the Creator Classic prior to THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2025 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. "For the last eight or nine years, the opportunities have been amazing," Bryan told Monday Q. "I'm extremely grateful to the Tour for that. I don't want this to be the end of my professional golf career." Advertisement Mickelson, who has been one of the PGA Tour's most vocal critics in recent years, took to X on Wednesday to call on the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene on Bryan's behalf. "Here's a question. Normally when an entity violates independent contract law, they deny that it happened and forces the contractor/individual to prove that it did. "In this case the PGA Tour blatantly admits they are illegally banning an independent contractor so why doesn't they DOJ step in and enforce the law? Why does the individual have to sue to enforcer the law? DOJ do your fffing job!" Horvat later posted his own support for Bryan via X, stating, "#FreeWesley." Advertisement Eric J. Wallace is deputy sports editor for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at ejwallace@ This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Phil Mickelson calls out PGA Tour after it suspended golfer for LIV event
