The 11-member board that will have the final say on the plan to issue $400 million of revenue bonds to build Louisiana’s new $1.2 billion, 462-bed teaching hospital in New Orleans got its first permanent member this week.
New Orleans real estate developer Darryl Berger will represent Tulane University on the board established to finance, build, and operate the University Medical Center in the Mid-City neighborhood. The facility will replace Charity Hospital, which was destroyed by flooding following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Preliminary plans call for UMC to be financed with $300 million from the state, $475 million in federal reimbursements, and $425 million in revenue bonds.
The revenue debt would be authorized under the bond authority granted to the Louisiana State University System. LSU would own the hospital and lease it to the nonprofit UMC, which would issue the revenue bonds. The agreement reached in August 2009 calls for seven members representing medical schools and four appointed by the governor.
LSU System president John Lombardi said that he would appoint LSU’s four trustees in several months when a financing plan has been developed.
