The Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex completed another big step towards making the downtown stadium a reality.

The bond issue to finance the $300 million expansion of the BJCC including the construction of a downtown stadium received quality grades from rating agencies Moody's and Standard and Poor's.

The bonds will likely hit the market to be sold the week following the Fourth of July holiday, said Rush Rice, of Rice Advisory Group, BJCC's financial advisor.

Tad Snider, executive director of the BJCC, said he is very happy with the ratings. "We expected a lot and these are right inline with what we expected," he said.

Construction on the $174 million downtown stadium is projected to start by the end of the year and be open in 2021.

The stadium is a part of a $300 million BJCC expansion project, which is being funded by the BJCC, Birmingham, Jefferson County, UAB and corporate partners and a 3-percent tax on car leases and rentals in Jefferson County.

The bond issue includes fives series of bonds named: A, B, C, D and E. They are divided based on the sources of repayment.

Snider said A, B and C will be repaid by different revenue streams from the BJCC while D is being paid by Birmingham and E by Jefferson County.

Bonds are given a grade to indicate their quality and help investors determine their credit risk. Bonds are rated from C to AAA. The higher the rating the less risk for investors.

Here are the ratings of the BJCC bonds:

Standard & Poor's:

2018-A: AA-

2018-B: A+

2018-C: A+

2018-D: AA (Birmingham)

2018-E: AA (Jefferson County)

Moody's

2018-A: Aa3

2018-B: A1

2018-C: A1

2018-D: Aa2 (Birmingham)

2018-E: A3 (Jefferson County)

All of the bonds are stable, Rice said.

In the two weeks before the bonds are sold, they will be promoted and pre-marketed to fund managers, he said. The bonds will be priced in one day, and the executive committee of the BJCC board will have to convene to approve the pricing.

In April, the BJCC board of directors selected four firms to serve as the underwriters for the bonds.

Raymond James and Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. are to serve as the co-senior managers and Loop Capital Markets and Securities Capital Corp. to serve as managers. The book running manager is Raymond James.

Underwriters purchase the bonds and then resell them to the public or other investors.