Nichols College is building a 27,500-square-foot academic building with $20 million in tax-exempt bonds from MassDevelopment. United Bank purchased the bonds.

The building will house the Institute for Women’s Leadership, academic support services, classrooms and offices. It will also help renovate and expand Chalmers Field House, improve campus lighting and landscaping, finance various improvements across the school’s Dudley campus and refinance previous debt, which financed construction of dormitories, academic buildings and a gymnasium.

"The business instruction Nichols provides its students is instrumental for their success in rapidly changing industries," MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones said in a statement. "This new facility will open opportunities for even more students, especially women, who have great role models for leadership here in Massachusetts."

Nichols College is an independent four-year business school that enrolls 1,500 students in its undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs at the main campus in Dudley and two satellite campuses.