Stonehill to launch business school with $25M MassDevelopment bond

June 20, 2018 : Boston Business Journal, by Max Stendahl

Stonehill College announced Wednesday that it plans to open a business school using a $25 million bond from state economic development and finance agency MassDevelopment.

The private liberal arts college, based in Easton, said it will partially demolish an existing building on its campus, and construct a three-story, 65,000-square-foot facility in its place. The new building will be called the Leo J. Meehan School of Business, named after W.B. Mason CEO and Stonehill alumnus Leo Meehan.

Meehan and W.B. Mason previously made a $10 million donation to Stonehill that will go toward construction of the facility. The project broke ground last month, and is expected to be completed in August 2019.

The launch of the business school is part of a broader reorganization at Stonehill, which has around 2,500 students. The changes will create two main academic programs: the School of Arts & Sciences and the Meehan School of Business.

In a statement on Wednesday, Stonehill said that the tax-exempt bond from MassDevelopment would allow the college to transform its campus while minimizing capital costs.

“When it is completed, the Meehan School of Business will bolster the college’s already strong business programs with cutting-edge digital technologies that equip our students with the emerging capacities of social networks, data science and scalable innovation,” a spokesperson said.