Launchpad Development Company and Rocketship Education Continue to Break New Ground

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Launchpad Development Company, a California not-for-profit developer of charter school facilities, and Rocketship Education, the nation's leading network of K-5 hybrid charter schools, are proud to announce the completion and opening of two new, high performing charter schools in San Jose, Rocketship Mosaic and Rocketship Discovery Prep. The facilities for the two schools were completed by Launchpad in August and will initially serve over 800 students, growing to serve over 1,000 students by 2013.   Rocketship currently serves over 2,000 students at five public charter schools in San Jose, California, achieving a network API of 868 while serving over 80% Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) students.  

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Planning for the new projects, located at 370 Wooster Avenue and 950 Owsley Avenue, began over 20 months ago and included an outstanding and dedicated team of design, manufacturing and development professionals.   Through its strategic partnerships with Enviroplex, Artik Art and Architecture and Robert A. Bothman, Inc, Launchpad has been able to utilize a development model that leverages prefabricated buildings, providing both cost advantages and unprecedented consistency in both quality and development timelines. "The tireless efforts of the design and development team were crucial to ensuring that 800 families were able to have an amazing school space available for the first day of school," said Laura Kozel, President of Launchpad.

While completing the two new schools has been widely lauded, the successful financing of Rocketship Mosaic through the use of tax-exempt bonds marks another significant accomplishment – not only for Rocketship and Launchpad, but also for the charter school industry as a whole.

Historically, individual charter schools have not been able to access the bond market for projects until the school has had multiple years of academic and operational history. Despite the outstanding performance of Rocketship's existing schools, many industry veterans believed it was an impossible dream to use tax-exempt bonds to finance a "stand-alone" charter school with no operational history.  Not so for Launchpad and Rocketship after an aggressive campaign to convince bond investors otherwise.  This campaign and the resulting transaction structure was designed by its investment bankers from De La Rosa & Co and supported by America's Charter Credit Enhancement Program, all culminating in the bonds being purchased by three of the top charter school investors in the country.  

From the start, De La Rosa & Co. knew there would be significant resistance from investors on purchasing bonds for a stand-alone "start-up" school since there was no precedent for selling such bonds in the industry.  However, De La Rosa & Co. believed that if given the chance, the credit strengths of Rocketship, Launchpad, and their schools would shine through to investors. "The key to selling the bonds was giving Rocketship and Launchpad the time to tell their inspiring story in person. Once investors were able to talk to the management teams and learn more about their outstanding track record developing similar charter schools the decision to purchase the bonds came much easier," said John Kim, partner with De La Rosa & Co.

As Launchpad continues to develop projects for Rocketship, the entire finance and development team is excited about the prospect of building upon this current success to push for creation of a financing structure that will facilitate a rapid growth environment for high-performing charter management organizations.  Not the impossible dream, just a fair amount of hard work to convince current and potential investors to help 'launch' the next innovation in charter school financing.

About Launchpad Development Company

Launchpad Development Company (www.launchpad-dev.org) was founded in 2009 by Rocketship Education, a leading charter school network based in San Jose, CA.  Launchpad's mission is to serve the unique real estate facilities development and financing needs of high-performing charter schools and charter management organizations, to ensure that securing affordable facilities is no longer an impediment to the growth and continued success of the industry.

Contact: Laura Kozel, President
Launchpad Development Company
420 Florence Street, Ste. 300
Palo Alto, CA   94301
(408) 933-3983, Ext. 701

SOURCE Launchpad Development Company