3 colleges get MassDevelopment funds

MassDevelopment, the state's finance and development authority, today announced $118 million in low-cost tax-exempt bond financing for three local colleges.

The colleges are the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Wheelock College, and Babson College, MassDevelopment said.

The College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences will use proceeds from a $56 million bond issue to construct a new health science academic building and refinance some existing debt, and Wheelock plans to use some of a $42 million bond issue to build a new campus center, MassDevelopment said.

As for Babson, it will use $20 million in tax-exempt bond proceeds to refinance existing debt, the authority said.

Providing lower-cost financing to institutions of higher education, a critical driver of the Massachusetts economy, "makes fiscal sense," MassDevelopment president and chief executive Robert L. Culver said in a statement.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)