In 2002, the City of Hampton issued Convention Center Revenue Bonds to finance the construction of the Hampton Roads Convention Center, an award-winning facility that includes meeting rooms, exhibit halls, a grand ballroom, and banquet seating for up to 2,000 people. The City applied to VRA’s Virginia Pooled Financing Program in order to refinance those bonds for debt service savings and to eliminate certain restrictive covenants from the original bonds. Through two issuances in Spring 2011 (the 2011A bonds) and Spring 2012 (the 2012A bonds), the City was able to refund $86.2 million in bonds and freed $8 million from restrictive covenants for use to retire some of the remaining principal. The combined debt service savings of both issuances represented a total net present value of $9.2 million. Both issuances are secured by the revenues of the Hampton Roads Convention Center.
