The operation of this paragraph (g) is illustrated by the following examples:
Example 1. Purchase of construction materials.
City A issues bonds to finance a new office building. A uses proceeds of the bonds to purchase materials to be used in constructing the building, such as bricks, pipes, wires, lighting, carpeting, heating equipment, and similar materials. Expenditures by A for the construction materials are construction expenditures because those expenditures will be capitalizable to the cost of the building upon completion, even though they are not initially capitalizable to the cost of existing real property. This result would be the same if A hires a third-party to perform the construction, unless the office building is partially constructed at the time that A contracts to purchase the building.
Example 2. Turnkey contract.
City B issues bonds to finance a new office building. B enters into a turnkey contract with developer D under which D agrees to provide B with a completed building on a specified completion date on land currently owned by D. Under the agreement, D holds title to the land and building and assumes any risk of loss until the completion date, at which time title to the land and the building will be transferred to B. No construction has been performed by the date that B and D enter into the agreement. All payments by B to D for construction of the building are construction expenditures because all the payments are properly capitalized to the cost of the building, but payments by B to D allocable to the acquisition of the land are not construction expenditures.
Example 3. Right-of-way.
P, a public agency, issues bonds to finance the acquisition of a right-of-way and the construction of sewage lines through numerous parcels of land. The right-of-way is acquired primarily through P’s exercise of its powers of eminent domain. As of the issue date, P reasonably expects that it will take approximately 2 years to acquire the entire right-of-way because of the time normally required for condemnation proceedings. No expenditures for the acquisition of the right-of-way are construction expenditures because they are costs incurred to acquire an interest in existing real property.
Example 4. Subway cars.
City C issues bonds to finance new subway cars. C reasonably expects that it will take more than 6 months for the subway cars to be constructed to C‘s specifications. The subway cars are constructed personal property. Alternatively, if the builder of the subway cars informs C that it will only take 3 months to build the subway cars to C’s specifications, no payments for the subway cars are construction expenditures.
Example 5. Fractional interest in property.
U, a public agency, issues bonds to finance an undivided fractional interest in a newly constructed power-generating facility. U contributes its ratable share of the cost of building the new facility to the project manager for the facility. U‘s contributions are construction expenditures in the same proportion that the total expenditures for the facility qualify as construction expenditures.
Example 6. Park land.
City D issues bonds to finance the purchase of unimproved land and the cost of subsequent improvements to the land, such as grading and landscaping, necessary to transform it into a park. The costs of the improvements are properly capitalizable to the cost of the land, and therefore, are construction expenditures, but expenditures for the acquisition of the land are not.