Seton Hill University eyes $37.5M bond issue for indoor athletic facility, Sullivan Hall revamp

Seton Hill University is looking to develop a new indoor athletic facility on its Greensburg campus and is planning to partner with the Latrobe Industrial Development Authority to help finance the project.

The authority has scheduled a special meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday at Latrobe City Hall to review the project plans and to consider a related 2026 bond issue of up to $37.5 million.

The financing also would assist with an extensive renovation of Seton Hill’s Sullivan Hall, which dates from 1929.

The university is planning to build the 87,000-square-foot athletic facility on an open plot of land overlooking the Griffins softball field.

Construction could begin in February at the earliest. The bonds are slated to be issued that month.

The facility will include a 200-meter indoor track along with jumping and pole vaulting areas. That will give Seton Hill’s nationally competitive track and field team its first on-campus facility, according to Jennifer Reeger, the university’s associate vice president for communications and media relations.

There will be additional indoor practice space for a variety of sports, including an indoor turf field available to Seton Hill athletes — and to all students, for recreation.

Reeger said the building will offer a new practice space for the Seton Hill wrestling team, which will move uphill from its current location at the bottom of Seton Hill Drive. It will provide the first-ever locker room space for the wrestling team and for baseball, softball, track and field, cross country and lacrosse programs.

“Coaches for those various programs will also find office space in the facility, along with a recruiting and media room they can use to attract new players and review film with their current players,” Reeger said. “With approximately one-third of undergraduate students competing in the institution’s 20 Division II varsity athletic teams, the university is committed to providing facilities consistent with the talents and needs of Seton Hill’s scholar-athletes.”

The university’s existing Katherine Mabis McKenna Center includes a gymnasium, aerobics and fitness rooms, a weight facility, locker rooms, intramural courts and athletic training facilities.

The four-story Sullivan Hall, which is next to the Mc­Kenna Center, is slated for a renovation that would provide modern spaces for growing academic programs in health care, business, entrepreneurship, computer science and cybersecurity, Reeger said.

Two floors will be dedicated to new programs in undergraduate and graduate nursing and a doctor of physical therapy program. A third floor will house the School of Business and Technology, featuring labs for finance and cybersecurity.

Other spaces will be occupied by the campus bookstore, a cafe, seminar rooms, a lecture hall, conference room, open study areas and a cadaver lab for the College of Health Professions and Natural Sciences.

Reeger said space in Sullivan will be freed up by moving practice and office space for some sports teams to the new athletic building.

With the help of Indovina Associates Architects of Pittsburgh, Sullivan’s usable space will increase from 37,000 square feet to 46,000 square feet while maintaining the building’s historical nature, she said.

Sullivan Hall is popularly known as “the castle building,” reflecting its Norman chateau-style architecture featuring towers.

In 2022, the university was granted $4 million in funding for renovation of Sullivan Hall through Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

University President Mary C. Finger said then that the project would “extend the life of this important campus landmark while meeting the needs of today’s students.”

On Monday, the Latrobe authority will hold a 6 p.m. public hearing to accept comment on the Seton Hill bond issue, which Latrobe City Council would consider approving at its meeting later that evening.

The authority is “often the pass-through entity for municipal bond financing for a nonprofit,” said Latrobe attorney Dan Hudock, who is taking over as authority solicitor from colleague Robert Lightcap.

He said neither the authority nor the city of Latrobe would have any liability concerning the bonds, which the university would be responsible for repaying.

Hudock explained the municipal bonds for the Seton Hill project would have tax-free status with Pennsylvania and the IRS — meaning entities that purchase the bonds would not have to pay tax on the interest they earn.

“That’s why they’re attractive to institutional investors” such as pension funds and mutual funds, he said.

In a Nov. 18 letter to the Latrobe authority, underwriter J.P. Morgan Securities indicated it expects the bonds would be issued in February and would have fixed interest rates and a term not to exceed 30 years.