State Bond Commission also approves bonds for Algiers apartments
The State Bond Commission has authorized Loyola University to issue up to $125 million in revenue bonds to help expand and upgrade classroom and residential buildings on its Uptown campuses.
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Loyola University spokeswoman Meredith Hartley said the proposed issue is the university's third in the past three years, bringing the total to about $235 million. Past issues have been dedicated for infrastructure improvements as well as building needs on the main St. Charles Avenue campus and its Broadway campus, the former site of Dominican College.
The bonds approved Thursday will be issued through the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority, which traditionally can get a better-than-conventional interest rate on bonds.
Hartley said the largest portion of the issue is for an $80 million expansion and renovation of Monroe Hall.
The facility is the university's main science building and has classroom space for about 40 percent of all undergraduate classes. Hartley said the facility will grow from just under 175,000 square feet to about 320,000 square feet.
She said the plan also calls for spending $12 million to refurbish Cabra Hall, a dorm on the Broadway campus and another $12 million for renovations to Buddig Hall, a dorm on Loyola's main campus. Another $1 million each will be set aside for repairs to Biever and Carrollton halls, both dorms on the main campus.
Hartley said the work is expected to begin next summer.
Commission analyst Cassie Berthelot said the work at Loyola is estimated to create about 1,370 temporary construction jobs, 18 new permanent jobs and retain another 180.
The commission also approved the issuance of $10 million in bonds through the Louisiana Community Development Authority to acquire the 273-unit Jackson's Landing North, an apartment complex at 3400 Garden Oaks Drive in Algiers.
House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, owns the development but did not attend the meeting and wrote a letter of recusal to state Treasurer John Kennedy, who chairs the commission. "Under the law, as the seller of the property, it is my responsibility to disclose and recuse myself from this vote, " Tucker wrote.
Later in the day, Tucker, who is running for secretary of state, said he has an ethics board opinion clearing his ownership and sale of the property. Tucker said he owns 60 percent of the property and his daughters own 40 percent of it in a trust.
If the bond sale goes through, the units will be owned by the Jericho Housing Corp., a nonprofit corporation that will make some of the units available for low- and moderate-income families. By law, the commission must sign off on a bond sale involving a nonprofit agency.
The bond sale is contingent on a second approval of the development authority. It also needs approval from the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, which is scheduled to be phased out in a few months. The agency voted against the sale of Jackson Landing South, which has about 270 units also owned by the Tuckers, at its meeting this week because of the way the deal was structured.
Tucker said the sale was discussed in concept but nothing had been put in writing.
The bond panel also approved the sale of up to $9 million in bonds by the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board for construction, improvements and replacements to parts of the sewerage system.
Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5810.
