County executive pitches $150 million bond plan to renovate University Health facilities

The county executive and University Health officials presented a plan on July 20 to issue up to $150 million in bonds to modernize facilities at the Lakewood campus and the Health Sciences District. Charlie Shields described decades-old buildings (1908 and 1928 structures) that have structural and air-quality problems and proposed demolishing the oldest buildings, building a new medical office building and refurbishing long-term care and clinic spaces.

James Pritchard, managing director at Columbia Capital, explained the financing structure: use the county's existing $10 million annual support as the revenue stream to service new special obligation bonds, with a 30-year repayment schedule and pricing expected in September and an October closing. "So rather than the county, you know, coming up with a new funding source, we're basically redirecting the annual support that you've already been providing so that the University Health has has the monies to do this this big project here," Pritchard said.

Officials said the plan would stabilize critical infrastructure (generators, patient rooms, utilities), add a dental clinic and new care-navigation/food-pharmacy programs, and aim to keep services countywide. The finance team said legal documents and rating applications are already underway and any future bond ordinance would include parameters (not-to-exceed principal, interest and final maturity) to be approved by the legislature. Questions from legislators focused on adjacent land, sequencing, and whether retaining certain parcels is preferable to selling them for development.