USC likely to take on $44 million in debt for new building
Moving the School of Law could trigger a need for $30 million of renovations on campus as USC pushes to add classroom space and move students out of outdated buildings, university officials told trustees Sunday.
Once the law school moves out, it’ll cost about $25 million to renovate the old Law Center to house the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management and add general classroom space, said Ed Walton, USC’s chief financial officer.
The university will also likely need to renovate the Taylor and Horry-Guignard houses, which will share a block with the new law school and could house new initiatives, Walton said. The Taylor House, for example, could house a new Rule of Law center, said Robert Wilcox, the dean of School of Law.
Work on the houses will cost $4 million and $1.2 million, respectively, Walton said, and could be paid for by delaying work on other buildings around campus.
Tackling issues in the Law Center, USC’s third-largest classroom building, would require the university to take on additional debt, he said.
The building is currently worth $35 million, said Derek Gruner, Facilities’ director of planning and programming, and it’s grown outdated since it was finished in 1973.
It was short on women’s restrooms, has asbestos issues so serious that workers can’t remove ceiling tiles, needs to be made more handicap accessible and has been worn down significantly, Gruner said.
A renovation would convert the law library into classroom space, potentially add laboratories, plant grass in place of the building’s parking lot and build a two-story lobby between its two main wings, Gruner said.
Some trustees at the board’s retreat Sunday balked at the cost of the renovations paired with the debts USC will incur in building the new law school complex.
In all, Walton said, without raising tuition, USC can afford up to $9.33 million in additional annual state institutional bond payments; without fundraising efforts, issuing bonds for the slate of projects would require yearly payments of $7.19 million.
But administrators warned that opening up more classroom space was a crucial need, because the amount of classroom space hasn’t grown significantly and enrollment has swelled.
“I think what we’re doing is paying for our prior sins,” said Mack Whittle, Jr., a trustee from Greenville.
Building the new law school will likely require USC to take on more debt than it had previously expected.
The board of trustees previously said it would be willing to issue $35 million in bonds to pay for the $81.48 million project, but Wilcox said the school would most likely need somewhere between $43 million and $44 million.
Wilcox said he hoped to pull down one more major gift before 2017 and that funds from the federal New Markets Tax Credit program could reduce how much USC takes on as debt.
Between fundraising and state sources, the university has less than half of the money it needs for the project on hand. Currently, it needs $49.58 million more, Wilcox said, though additional gifts and pledged money will likely lower the number.
The new building, which will shoot for LEED Silver certification, is intended to improve the law school’s reputation and recruitment, Wilcox said, which has seen fewer and lower-quality applicants in recent years, a trend that’s reflected in law schools around the country.
The new complex will feature smaller classrooms, more event space and a ceremonial courtroom to host court proceedings, Wilcox said.
It will also have a 24-hour student commons, consolidated student services and more space for faculty and students to interact.
Once the College of HRSM moves into the old building, it’ll allow USC to start to deal with the question of what will become of the Carolina Coliseum.
No decisions have been made yet regarding the building’s eventual fate, USC President Harris Pastides said, but Provost Michael Amiridis cautioned against continuing to use it for academics, saying that classroom space there is limited and of “really poor quality.”