CAMARILLO : Development’s Bond Rating Is Lowered

A New York firm has lowered the bond rating for the Hacienda de Camarillo III housing development after the developer missed three monthly loan payments on the project, an official from the firm said Tuesday.

Fitch Investors Services lowered the rating for $9.6 million in bonds issued on the project, which was completed about four years ago, from a BB rating to a CCC, said Vincent J. Barberio, vice president of the firm’s public finance department. The highest possible bond rating is AAA.

Officials for the developer, BIBO Inc. of Camarillo, declined to comment Tuesday. The developer has built projects for low- and moderate-income residents around the county but was turned down last September for a low-income project in Moorpark.

The Ventura County Area Housing Authority issued the bonds on the 193-unit one- and two-bedroom apartment complex on Paseo Camarillo in 1988, said Carolyn Briggs, executive director of the authority. A minimum of 39 of the apartments are rented as federally subsidized units, she said.

The lower rating does not affect the housing authority’s credit, Barberio said. “Effectively, we’re saying if monthly payments don’t start and payment in arrears aren’t made, there could be a default somewhere down the way,” Barberio said.

Payments from the developer to the bond trustee, Seattle-First National Bank of Seattle, are scheduled monthly, but payments to bondholders are scheduled every six months, said Mona Yurk, a bank assistant vice president. In order to meet a payment due in December, about $128,000 had to be withdrawn from a reserve fund, she said.

The reserve fund has enough money to cover the next six-month payment due in June, Barberio said.