The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board has approved bond proposals from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.
The board last week approved financing plans for $52.5 million of bonds and a $12 million loan for the medical school located in Little Rock and $9.3 million of bonds for the Fort Smith campus.
The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees will issue the bonds.
UAMS will use the proceeds to complete the ninth floor of a recently constructed 436-room hospital building to add new patient rooms. The university said the proposed facilities would bring in an additional $1.2 million of revenues a year.
The school will also purchase an unused minor league baseball stadium to accommodate an expected expansion and to upgrade its central energy plant to save an estimated $3.5 million a year in utility costs.
The UA-Fort Smith will renovate its main campus library with bond proceeds.
Moody’s Investors Service rates the University of Arkansas’ debt Aa3.
