MassDevelopment.com: Press Room: $80 Million MassDevelopment Bond Supports Emerson College Campus Expansion

$80 Million MassDevelopment Bond Supports Emerson College Campus Expansion
School to Renovate Historic Paramount Theatre, Build a Performing Arts Center and Increase Student Housing
December 4, 2006

Contacts:
Adam Bickelman, MassDevelopment, 617-330-2086
David Rosen, Emerson College, 617-824-8451

MassDevelopment today announced the closing of a $80,975,000 financing package for Emerson College in Boston. Emerson is using tax-exempt bond proceeds to fund two projects – the creation of a new performing arts/residence complex on Washington Street that will be known as The Paramount Center and the renovation of the upper floors of the Colonial Building on Boylston Street for use as a residence hall and library expansion.

The projects will significantly enhance the College’s facilities, which have been relocated from the Back Bay to the Theatre District over the past 14 years, and will increase the number of students housed on-campus from 1,310 to 1,970. Construction on the two sites is expected to begin in 2007 and be completed in 2009.

The Paramount Center project includes renovating the historic Paramount Theater and converting it from a movie house to a live performance venue with 550 seats. Other facilities will include a 125-seat black box theater, a 200-seat film screening room, nine rehearsal studios, practice rooms, a sound stage, classrooms, a restaurant, faculty and staff offices and housing for 260 students. Renovation of the upper floors of the Colonial Building will provide housing for 400 students.

Robert L. Culver, MassDevelopment president/CEO said the projects are great news for Emerson students and for the residents and workers of downtown-Boston. "The Paramount Theater has sat vacant and unused for years," he said. "Now it will be renovated and put back into service for Emerson students and local performing arts groups. These projects will also help the Commonwealth address its critical housing shortage by providing on-campus living quarters for 660 students."

Emerson President Jacqueline Liebergott said the projects reflect the college’s continuing efforts to provide the very best facilities for students and faculty. "The Paramount and Colonial projects will help the college achieve its objective of becoming a truly residential campus, while reinforcing its long-standing commitment to the city of Boston and to its performing arts community," said added.

Founded in 1880, Emerson is the oldest college of communication in the country and one of a handful of higher education institutions dedicated exclusively to communication and the visual, media and performing arts. The college enrolls approximately 3,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students.

MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development authority, works with businesses, financial institutions and local officials to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth. Between FY2004 and FY2006, MassDevelopment financed or managed 589 projects statewide representing an investment of more than $4 billion in the Massachusetts economy. These projects are supporting the creation of 5,505 housing units and more than 23,000 jobs: 12,381 permanent and 10,679 construction-related.