UMass sells $284M in bonds for construction

BOSTON (AP) - The University of Massachusetts has sold $284 million in construction bonds as it moves forward on several major projects.
  

Officials say a combination of taxable and tax-exempt bonds were sold this past week to individual and institutional investors. The average interest rate was just under 3.9 percent.
  

UMass Building Authority executive director Katherine Craven said the low rates will save the university millions of dollars in future debt service payments.
  

The borrowing will finance projects at each of the five campuses, including a building for the Commonwealth Honors College at UMass-Amherst; a bio-manufacturing accelerator project at UMass-Dartmouth; and the purchase by the UMass Medical School of three buildings at a biotechnology research park in Worcester.
  

UMass President Robert Caret says the new facilities will help students and faculty achieve at the highest levels.