City Council to Consider Riverwalk Financing Plan Today

The Bradenton City Council will consider at its Wednesday meeting a resolution to approve a financing plan of up to $5.5 million for Riverwalk, the final step needed to get the downtown waterfront project up and running.

The Downtown Development Authority on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution to issue a municipal bond to pay for the bulk of the estimated $6.2 million project.

With the city council's blessing, the DDA will seek investors for the bond and begin work on the , which includes plans for a skate park, improved lighting and walkways, interactive water features, public art and sculpture and more along a 1.2-mile stretch of the Manatee River.

Many of the features were suggested by local citizens during public workshops.

"It's just a very exciting thing to have the public input," project manager Dale Weidemiller said Tuesday.

A public hearing will be held at the city council's 6 p.m. meeting Wednesday before it votes on the financing plan. Council would also pledge a covenant to budget — essentially an agreement that the city would repay the bond directly should the DDA not be able to through tax increment funding.

The DDA's financial advisers said they are projecting about a $5.17 million bond issuance that would cover slightly less than 30 years. The interest rate is expected to be around 5.5 percent — lower than the 6 percent rate the DDA had already been considering.

The entire Riverwalk project is expected to carry a price tag of about $6.2 million. Weidemiller said he is confident the project will attain more than $1 million in grants that are in the final review stages.

If approved by council Wednesday, the DDA hopes to put the bond out on the marketplace within weeks and expects to have investors lined up by mid-June.

Bill Waddill of project architect Kimley-Horn and Associates said his firm has completed about 60 percent of the drawings for the Riverwalk and are "right on schedule" to break ground in July and complete the project early in the summer of 2012.

Ron Allen of NDC Construction, the project developer, said he will be working with national design companies on some of the project's features, including the skatepark, day docks and fishing pier.

"We are not gonna go out and just hire concrete people and things to do the skate park," Allen said.

Weidemiller said local skaters were consulted last week on some proposed skate park designs in the hopes of incorporating the best features of each in the final product.