Richard Stockton College of New Jersey will sell up to $48 million of revenue bonds this week to fund a series of capital improvement projects.
The New Jersey Educational Facilities Authority will serve as conduit issuer. UBS Securities LLC will sell the bonds.
Moody's Investors Service rated the bonds A2, and Fitch Ratings rated them A. The outlook is stable. Both agencies affirmed those ratings on the college's outstanding debt. Moody's said that after this issuance, the college would have $113.9 million of outstanding debt rated. Fitch said the college would have $128 million of debt outstanding.
A new 250-bed residential housing village is the main project to be funded with bond proceeds, said college spokesman Tim Kelly.
"It will have a community center, common area, wireless Internet capabilities," Kelly said. "The thing about that is that one of things that gave us these high bond ratings is the enrollment growth. How you attract the best and the brightest students is by offering them state-of-the-art campus housing."
Kelly said applications at the college are at an all time and that demand has grown 5.3% since 2003. Applications have increased 7.9% this year. The total number of students attending has increased to 7,213 this year from 6,538 in 2002.
"That is beyond what our planned projection was which was 2%," Kelly said. "We are showing robust continued growth in our enrollment."
Proceeds will also be used to fund capital maintenance projects, a system that uses thermal energy to reduce the college's demand for fuel, and open-space acquisition.
Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione is bond counsel, Park McCay PA is underwriters counsel, and Acacia Financial Group is the financial adviser. The deal will be insured by MBIA Insurance Corp. The bonds will issue 30-year bonds that will be callable after 10 years.
Andrea Jaeckel, associate vice president for administration and finance, said the college is considering entering into a swap agreement in connection with the deal but that a final decision has not been made. The college has about $15 million of variable rate debt tied to swap agreements
Stockton College opened in 1972. A four-year liberal arts college with just over 7,000 full- and part-time students, the school is located just north of Atlantic City in Galloway Township.
