Nashville’s Belmont University is more than doubling its debt to build classrooms for a not-yet-accredited new medical school, aiming to help alleviate a nationwide doctor shortage.
The Health and Educational Facilities Board of The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County is selling $187.5 million of municipal bonds on behalf of Belmont. Proceeds will be used to construct laboratories and classrooms for a school “focused on training diverse physician leaders who embrace and value a whole-person approach to healing,” according to the bond-offering documents. A portion of funds will also be used to finance the construction of a 719-bed residence hall.
The new medical school will be affiliated with HCA Healthcare Inc., the largest US hospital chain. HCA didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine is named after a co-founder of HCA and brother of former Senate majority leader Bill Frist. It’s scheduled to open next year. The hospital chain has helped make health care the largest industry in the Music City.
“The addition of a medical school certainly is a reflection of the need out there in US health care for doctors and other medical professionals,” said Gabe Diederich, a portfolio manager at Robert W. Baird & Co. That is especially true in fast-growing areas like Nashville, he said.
The new bonds — which are scheduled to price Wednesday — will bump Belmont’s outstanding debt to about $314 million, from $128.7 million as of last May, according to S&P Global Ratings. S&P assigned an A rating to the debt, pointing to recent application and enrollment increases and “extraordinary operating performance.”
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