In 1992, the Metropolitan Airports Commission issued $270 million in bonds to buy property and equipment from Northwest. Northwest then leased everything back from the MAC, with the lease payments covering payments to bondholders.
To get the deal, Northwest agreed to do three things:
• Keep its corporate headquarters in the Twin Cities area.
• Keep a hub at the airport.
• Maintain a specified level of employment here.
As part of Northwest's 2005 bankruptcy, the lease was renegotiated to include about $215 million in rent reductions and revenue sharing from airport concessions, conditional upon keeping the headquarters and the hub in the Twin Cities.
Source: House Research Department
