Somerville mini-bonds

Last year, I signed up to be informed about the City of Somerville’s approved issuance of municipal bond for retail investors through the Neighborly platform. See my post about it here. Fifteen months later, the issue is finally ready to go. Today, I went to an information session co-hosted by the City and by Neighborly.

Why the 15-month delay? It turns out that the original offering was linked to project financing, and the City couldn’t come up with the right project for a $500,000 bond. (That’s not a lot of money.) But Neighborly has since shifted to offer general obligation bonds — the funds aren’t earmarked for anything in particular — which made it much easier for the City to offer. This $500,000 offering to residents is being bundled with a $12 million institutional round.

The bonds will go on sale this Friday.