Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo Missed Loan Payment Backing Muni Debt (1)

A tiny zoo on the Alabama coast missed a loan payment backing $27.1 million of municipal bonds sold for an expansion and renovation project.

The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo failed to make monthly principal and interest payments due on Jan. 25, according to a notice to bondholders filed by UMB Bank, the trustee on the deal. That loan backs the unrated securities, indicating future debt service owed to bondholder Nuveen Asset Management may be in jeopardy.

Almost all of the outstanding debt is held by Nuveen, a unit of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, according to data compiled by ...