By Michael Davis
mdavis@myjpa.com

The Butts County Industrial Development Authority has decided to refinance its loan on the Riverview Business Park property in southern Butts and northern Lamar counties, despite losing its eligibility for a low interest rate.

The authority voted earlier this month, on July 9, to refinance the roughly $4.4 million loan. Industrial Development Authority Executive Director Alan E. White said the first three years of payments on the five-year loan will be interest-only, freeing up cash for the authority to continue work to prepare the property for development.

The authority had been facing the prospect of ballooning payments on its current loan, and a budget from the county slashed nearly in half this year. The 36-month fixed interest rate on the new loan is 6.125 percent. White said officials hope to close the loan early next month.

“What it does is it spreads it out and gives us like three years to get this done, with a little cash,” White said.

Earlier this year, the authority entered into an agreement with Panattoni Development Company to shepherd the property into development. Because there is potential profit to be made, White has said, the authority lost its ability to obtain a lower interest rate as a tax-exempt body.

White has said the county has been covering the payments on the loan through a budget allocation to the authority -- last year for $504,000. In the fiscal 2011 budget, the county allocated $275,000 to the authority, partly based on projections that the payments on the refinanced loan would be lower because of the tax-exempt interest rate.

The Riverview property sits south of Ga. Highway 36 and east of Interstate 75. Panattoni envisions one building on the site of more than 2 million square feet in size, in addition to smaller buildings.

The company and the authority have been working on environmental studies of the property and ways to design its layout to provide efficient access.

Depending on the layout of the buildings and their encroachment on streams, the site might also require mitigation permits, officials with Panattoni have said.