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Overview

Bank of China provides a $200,000 USD loan to Astron Development Corporation to serve as bridge financing in between payments for its work on the Hunters Point Shipyard Project

Commitments (Constant USD, 2023)$206,794
Commitment Year•2013Country of Activity•United StatesDirect Recipient Country of Incorporation•United StatesSector•Business And Other ServicesFlow Type•Loan

Status

Project lifecycle

Completion

Pipeline: PledgePipeline: CommitmentImplementationCompletion

Timeline

Key dates

Commitment date
Oct 1, 2013
Start (actual)
Oct 1, 2013
End (actual)
Jul 1, 2014

Geospatial footprint

Map overview

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The proceeds of this loan were used by the borrower to serve as bridge financing in between payments for its work on the Hunters Point Shipyard Project, which sought to redevelop a former U.S. Navy base into a neighborhood with affordable housing in Bayview–Hunters Point, San Francisco, California. More detailed locational information can be found at https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/4609282245

Stakeholders

Organizations involved in projects and activities supported by financial and in-kind transfers from Chinese government and state-owned entities

Ultimate beneficial owners

At least 25% host country ownership

Funding agencies

State-owned Commercial Banks

  • Bank of China (BOC)

Receiving agencies

Private Sector

  • Astron Development Corporation

Implementing agencies

Private Sector

  • Astron Development Corporation

Loan description

Bank of China provides a $200,000 USD loan to Astron Development Corporation to serve as bridge financing in between payments for its work on the Hunters Point Shipyard Project

Interest type•Unknown

Narrative

Full Description

Project narrative

In or around October 2013, the Bank of China (BOC) entered into a $200,000 USD loan agreement with Astron Development Corporation — a construction contractor based in California — to serve as bridge financing in between payments for its work on the Hunters Point Shipyard Project. Astron Development was a contractor under a $1.6 million USD contract from general contractor James E. Roberts-Obayashi Corporation, which was contracted by Lennar Corporation, the developer of Hunters Point Shipyard Project; the project sought redevelop a former U.S. Navy base into a neighborhood with affordable housing in Bayview–Hunters Point, San Francisco, California. Astron secured the loan to maintain solvency in between the time they did the work and the time they would get paid (estimated to be between six to eight weeks). However, when Astron arrived in October 2013, their work was delayed because of design changes and its first invoice was small and the second rejected by Roberts-Obayashi, which claimed Astron was front-loading the bill. By December 2013, the BOC loan was exhausted and Roberts-Obayashi had taken over direct payments to Astron's workers and suppliers. Astron's financial situation worsened, and then in July 2014, Roberts-Obayashi declared Astron in default on their contract in an email and claimed its work had been deficient (Astron acknowledged mistakes but blamed design changes that were not communicated to them and inaccurate documents provided by Roberts-Obayashi). As such, Astron's participation in the project was cancelled. As of February 2017, Astron had $500,000 USD in outstanding debt from working on the project (potentially including the BOC loan) and had not been able to take on any other projects and was near bankruptcy.