Northeastern University plans to sell municipal bonds to help replace its storied Matthews Arena, a century-old facility where the NHL's Boston Bruins and NBA's Boston Celtics once played.
Board members for the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, a state agency that can issue debt on behalf of nonprofits, voted on Thursday to approve the issuance of as much as $650 million of bonds on behalf of the university. Currently, Northeastern's men's and women's hockey teams as well as the men's basketball team use the arena, which opened in 1910.
Northeastern wants to replace the facility, more popularly known as the Boston Arena, with a multi-purpose complex that will continue to host the teams but also serve as a space for other academic and non-athletic events. The new arena would seat 4,050 people for ice hockey and 5,300 for basketball events,
The aging facility has been through previous renovations since Northeastern assumed ownership in 1979.
In 1924, the Boston Bruins played their first home game at the arena and in 1946 the Celtics played their first home game there,
The school plans to sell about $400 million of bonds to finance the athletics and recreation complex and $100 million to finance other capital projects on its Boston campus, according to spokesperson Michael Armini. Northeastern would set aside the rest for future potential projects, he said.
Separately, MassDevelopment board members on Thursday also approved a municipal bond sale of as much as $165 million for Wellesley College, a women's liberal arts college about 15 miles away from Northeastern's Boston campus.
Wellesley is looking to borrow money to refinance existing debt and fund new projects on its campus,
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey must approve both transactions for the bond sales to proceed, according to MassDevelopment spokesperson Kelsey Schiller.
