Transaction highlights
On December 3, 2025, RBC Capital Markets (“RBC”) served as Bookrunning Senior Manager to the Battery Park City Authority (“BPCA” or the “Authority”) on its $657,835,000 Senior Revenue Bonds, Series 2025 (Sustainability Bonds). The Bonds are the initial financing of an expected $2.1 billion program to enhance the climate resiliency of Battery Park City and adjacent portions of lower Manhattan. In addition to funding the Authority’s capital projects, the Bonds will also refund all outstanding 2023 Junior Notes and 2025 Junior Notes.
Summary of Terms
| Size and Offering | $657,835,000 Senior Revenue Bonds |
| Issuer | Battery Park City Authority |
| Security | Special obligations of the Authority payable from Pledged Funds, which include Pledged Sublease Revenues, Swap Receipts, Condemnation Proceeds, all monies in the Pledged Funds, the investments thereof and the proceeds of such investments pledged by the General Resolution |
| Credit Ratings | Moody's: Aaa (stable) | Fitch: AAA (stable) |
| Pricing Date | December 3, 2025 |
| Closing Date | December 9, 2025 |
| Purpose | (i) Fund all or a portion of certain capital projects; (ii) Refund all outstanding 2023 Junior Notes and 2025 Junior Notes; and (iii) Pay costs of issuance of the Series 2025 Senior Bonds |
| Tax Status | Tax-Exempt |
| Structure | Serial bonds due November 1, 2039 through 2046 and term bonds due November 1, 2050 and November 1, 2055 |
| Optional Redemption | Par call on or after November 1, 2035 |
| Final Maturity | November 1, 2055 |
| RBC CM Role | Bookrunning Senior Manager |
Issuer Overview
The Authority is a New York State public benefit corporation whose mission is to plan, create, coordinate, and sustain a balanced community of commercial, residential, retail, and park space within Battery Park City. In accordance with its mission, the Authority owns certain real property, generally known as Battery Park City, located in the City of New York on an approximately 92-acre site on the southwestern tip of Manhattan fronting the Hudson River. The phased development of Battery Park City was largely completed in 2011. Battery Park City is a richly diversified mixed-use community providing residential and commercial space, with related amenities such as parks, open spaces, plazas, recreational areas, a marina, public art, memorials, museums and a waterfront esplanade. Battery Park City contains 10.7 million square feet of office space and approximately 8,300 rental and condominium residential units.
Transaction Marketing, Pricing and Distribution
Leading up to pricing, RBC worked with the Authority and its Municipal Advisor (MA) to create a comprehensive marketing plan centered around (1) an in-depth investor targeting analysis, (2) a detailed online investor roadshow and (3) select investor one-on-one meetings. These efforts highlighted the essentiality of the Authority’s capital projects to provide resilient storm protection to Battery Park City and Lower Manhattan, and the historical strength of the Authority’s debt service coverage. RBCCM’s Municipal Debt Capital Markets team successfully identified and engaged 54 unique institutional investors ahead of pricing and the Sustainable Finance Group held preliminary calls to gauge interest amongst resiliency-focused investors. RBC also developed a rating agency strategy that led to the affirmation of the Authority’s AAA-rating, including a site visit to explain the scope and benefits of the proposed resiliency infrastructure projects.
Municipal issuance the week prior to pricing (Thanksgiving week) totaled $2.9 billion. Comparatively, leading up to the transaction, the expected municipal issuance the week of pricing was anticipated to reach $15.9 billion. The market opened with a steady tone on the morning of the Retail Order Period (“ROP”) (Tuesday, December 2) and the Authority, the MA, and RBC agreed to offer all maturities to retail investors. Despite the backloaded amortization structure of the transaction, which would typically limit retail interest, the Authority captured over $300 million of retail orders, providing meaningful momentum for the transaction going into the Institutional Order Period (“IOP”).
BPCA entered the IOP on Wednesday, December 3. RBC and the Authority agreed to decrease spreads on oversubscribed maturities from the ROP and hold spreads steady on the outstanding balances. $512 million of bonds were offered during the IOP. Strong market conditions and the scarcity value of the BPCA credit helped the Authority to successfully generate $2.37 billion in orders from 51 institutional investors. Overall, investors placed a total of $2.67 billion of orders across both order periods, resulting in an overall oversubscription of 4.0x. Final repricing resulted in the lowest spreads the Authority has ever achieved on a transaction.