The Build America Bureau recently approved its first Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) TIFIA loan.
The loan, for up to $26.8 million, was approved for the Mt. Vernon Library Commons Project in downtown Mount Vernon, Wash.
The project includes a parking garage, electric vehicle-chargers and a multi-use building containing a public library, community center, commercial kitchen, computing space, meeting rooms, and a STEM center.
“The Mt. Vernon project exemplifies the opportunity to combine grants and financing from multiple federal programs to deliver a transformational TOD project,” Bureau Executive Director Morteza Farajian said. “By offering an extremely low interest rate of around 2.25 percent, the TIFIA Rural Project Initiative provides notable financial savings that allow the City to invest in other key projects and services.”
The project is financed through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act’s (TIFIA) Rural Project Initiative for up to 49 percent of project costs with an interest rate equal to half the U.S. Treasury’s rate.
TOD offers below-market rate financing on infrastructure projects.
The Federal Highway Administration previously awarded Mount Vernon a $12.5 million Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program for Fiscal Year 2022-2023 grant to install 78 charging ports in the project’s parking garage.