Thanks to willing investors and a high credit rating, New Hanover County completed a successful sale of general obligation bonds to fund voter-approved education-related projects. The county’s finance department closed on the sale Thursday, officials announced in a news release.

With the sale, the county sold $83.3 million in bonds, generating the desired $92 million, the release stated, adding the county was able to obtain bond premiums of more than $9.1 million because of its AAA bond rating.

“Because of the county’s high bond rating, which is the highest that can be obtained from rating agencies, (AAA from Moody’s Investors Service and AAA from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services) the interest cost on the bonds [was] approximately 2.28 percent,” the release stated. “The first payment on this debt this fiscal year came in under amounts budgeted, due to this low interest cost.”

Proceeds from the sale, according to the release, will fund capital projects for New Hanover County Schools and Cape Fear Community College. These include various school renovations as well as construction of one new elementary school and a new classroom and training facility on CFCC’s North Campus.