BLINN TRUSTEES TO CONSIDER $10 MILLION BOND SALE FOR NEW CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT
The Blinn College Board of Trustees will consider a resolution authorizing a $10 million bond sale to begin development of the new Bryan West campus during its regular board meeting on Tuesday.
The 6:30 p.m. meeting will be held on the third floor of the Brenham campus Administration Building at 802 Green Street.
Steven Adams, managing director of Specialized Public Finance, Inc., told the board at its October meeting that selling the $10 million bank-qualified bond in 2015 and following with a non-bank qualified bond in 2016 would save the College approximately $180,000 in interest and fees compared to a stand-alone non-bank qualified issuance. Bank-qualified bonds have a lower interest than non-bank qualified tax-exempt bonds, but are capped at $10 million per year.
In February, Blinn purchased 95 acres at the intersection of F.M. 2818 and Leonard Road in Bryan for the development of a second Brazos County campus. Blinn plans to develop this land into a 10,000–15,000 student campus to complement the College’s existing Bryan campus on Villa Maria Road. The additional campus will allow Blinn to develop additional science, technology, engineering and mathematics offerings and expand its workforce, technical, research and health-related education programs.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Blinn trustees will consider authorizing College administrators to negotiate a construction manager at risk contract for Phase 1 of the new campus’s development. The board was presented with a preliminary glimpse of the Bryan West campus master plan in September. The draft, developed in partnership with Kirksey Architecture, includes a first-phase building designed to service 2,500 students, along with plans for associated amenities such as parking, security and recreational and study space.
The proposed plan calls for the multi-phased development of seven academic buildings, three amenity buildings and as many as 6,000 parking spaces, including more than 1,000 spaces in Phase 1 of the project. As proposed, Phase 1 has a preliminary $35 million construction budget and would accommodate approximately 2,500 students with one amenity building and an academic building that would include eight labs and 18 classrooms.
Blinn anticipates breaking ground on the new campus in early 2016, and Phase 1 is scheduled for completion in time for the Fall 2017 semester. An additional bond sale in the spring will fund the remaining cost of the campus’s Phase 1 development.
For the latest information regarding the development of the new campus, visit: www.blinn.edu/expansion.