Finance Authority Assists CCAD with Refinancing

The Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) will refinance $21.4 million of existing debt on a group of buildings clustered along Cleveland Avenue. The project is being refinanced through the Finance Authority and the Huntington Bank. CCAD’s financing will benefit from tax advantages available through the Federal Stimulus package that is set to expire on December 31, 2010.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the CCAD refinancing is the third Finance Authority project that has taken advantage of changes to the bank qualified bond rules. These changes allow each 501(c)(3) institution to issue up to $30 million in tax-exempt financing annually for capital projects and allow banks buying their bonds to deduct their carrying cost, thus allowing for lower interest rates for the borrower.

“This is the first time we have used the Finance Authority for facilitating a bond issue.  We found the process to be streamlined, fast, efficient and a nice alternative.” -Jeff Fisher, Senior Vice President and CFO, Columbus College of Art and Design

CCAD was founded in 1879 in downtown Columbus. CCAD offers a bachelor of fine arts degree and a master of fine arts degree with over 1,300 students enrolled from over 40 states and 35 foreign countries and with a faculty of over 190.

The Finance Authority is closing out its fourth year of operations and has issued $291 million in financing closing on 18 projects that will invest more than $352 million and create over 1,440 jobs in Central Ohio.