Kutak Rock served as legal counsel to the City of Long Beach, California and the Port of Long Beach on the P3 (Public-Private Partnership) financing of the $513 million Long Beach Civic Center Project. The Project is the second largest social infrastructure P3 project to reach financial close in the United States, and potentially serves as a model for future P3 municipal facilities.

Kutak Rock attorneys Mike Reppe, Michael Thomas, Micah Halverson and Larry Carlile represented both the City and the Port on various aspects of the Project, including assisting the City and the Port with the structuring of the transaction and negotiating various components of the Project Agreement and the other related agreements.

The Project is intended to reinvigorate downtown Long Beach and will include: 

• An 11-story 270,000 sq. ft. City Hall
• An 11-story 237,000 sq. ft. Port Headquarters Building
• A two-story 92,000 sq. ft. Main Library
• A 73,000 sq. ft. Civic Plaza
• New underground parking with 469 spaces
• A central utility plant
• A three-rooftop solar array system to provide up to 25% of the Civic Center energy needs
• Revitalization of a City park
• Plans for future mixed use development with up to 580 residential units, retail space and up to 200 hotel rooms

Michael P. Conway, Director of Economic and Property Development for the City of Long Beach, said the P3 method was used because it enabled the City to procure a new civic center without bond issues, tax measures or voter approvals. He said the P3 method also facilitated design and operational innovation that provided a high level of life-cycle maintenance and increased private real estate development of the downtown area through the City's contribution of land.

To see a press release concerning the Long Beach Project, please click here.