Three days after announcing the acquisition of a seven-acre lot on Park Avenue, Clark University in Worcester announced on Wednesday it is working to secure $100 million in financing to fund a number of facility upgrades and new projects.
Along with supporting a number of projects, the $100-million financing will enable the school to refinance $56 million in debt, according to a letter from President David Fithian.
Clark said it received a report Monday from the New York investors and credit rating agency Moody’s, which solidified the school’s choice to move forward with the financing plan. While it indicated strong financial prospects, the report lowered Clark’s credit rating from A1 to A2.
“The adjustment reflects the assumption of additional debt and the need for new investment in our physical plant,” Fithian wrote in his letter.
Of the projects supported by this new funding, Clark said it plans to construct an academic building which will combine computer sciences, visual and performing arts, and media arts and game design. The building will offer collaborative space for all students and become home to Clark’s Department of Computer Science and its new Becker School of Design & Technology, which it opened in March after Becker College in Worcester closed.
The new building will be located between Hawthorne and Woodland streets among a cluster of other department buildings, such as the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the English department’s Anderson House.
In other physical investments, Clark bought the former site of the Diamond Chevrolet auto dealership on Park Avenue for $7 million, announced Monday, and plans to renovate its theater center with a $2-million gift, announced in late September. Plans for the Park Avenue lot will be decided through community dialogue, the school said.
