Cambridge Minibond Round 2 Underway

CAMBRIDGE, MA – The city of Cambridge's second minibond sale is underway until Feb. 26. Minibonds allow residents to earn tax-exempt interest and invest directly in the city's infrastructure. Each resident may purchase up to 25 minibonds for a total investment of $25,000; interest will be paid semi-annually and the principal will be paid in 2023.

The city expects to sell up to $2.5 million in its second minibond sale and has sold over $800,000 since Tuesday alone.

"For many years, the City of Cambridge received calls from residents asking how they could buy the City’s Bonds," Cambridge City Manager Louie DePasquale said in a statement. "Our minibonds are a great way to provide Cambridge residents a way to invest directly in City projects that will benefit our entire community. There was a lot of demand from our citizens and we sold out early last year, so we are excited to expand our minibonds offerings to Cambridge residents this year."

How does it work? A minibond is similar to a traditional municipal bond, which allows investors to loan money to a city or public agency for an agreed-upon period of time, receive interest on the investment and get their loan paid back when the bond matures. The city plans to use minibond proceeds to support capital projects like school building renovations, municipal facility upgrades and implementation of the Complete Streets plan.

The 2017 offering yielded $2 million in minibonds and was awarded the 2017 “Deal of the Year” by the "Bond Buyer" in the non-traditional financing category. The annual award recognizes innovative municipal financial practices and recognized the city for its minibond program.

The City is working with Neighborly Securities to issue the minibonds. Neighborly is not affiliated with the City of Cambridge in any way, other than as the broker-dealer for this sale of minibonds.

For questions about setting up an account with Neighborly to purchase minibonds, please contact Neighborly at 1-866-432-1170, support@neighborly.com, or www.neighborly.com/cambridge.

For general questions about Cambridge minibonds, please visit minibonds.cambridgema.gov or contact the City’s Budget Office at minibonds@cambridgema.gov or (617) 349-4270.

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