BRADENTON, Fla. — Florida transportation officials are ramping up to engage in several billion-dollar-plus public-private partnerships, and are close to selecting a pool of P3 financial advisers as various projects move forward.
The Florida Department of Transportation is reviewing the qualifications of 12 firms interested in providing the agency with P3 financial expertise. FDOT is in the process of creating a “short list” of firms that would be assigned projects and expects to negotiate contracts through June 2009, according to state documents.
The 12 firms vying to become Florida’s new P3 advisers are Alvarez & Marsal, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Infrastructure Management Group Inc., Jeffrey Parker & Associates Inc., KPMG, Navigant Consulting Inc., Public Financial Management, Public Resources Advisory Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Stainback Public/Private Real Estate LLC.
The short list of firms is expected to be released tomorrow, according to FDOT purchasing director David Callaway.
The department in the past has used several firms for financial advisory services on a project-specific basis.
For example, Jeffrey Parker & Associates provided financial advice on the $1.2 billion
As more of these complex projects move forward, FDOT’s central office wants a pool of financial advisers to assist with P3 initiatives, said Steve Berry, the department’s P3 program manager.
“These public-private partnerships tend to have common characteristics. They tend to be very large, very unique, and very expensive,” Barry said. “The Florida DOT wants to make sure that it has the best financial advice that it can in this emerging area.”
A pool of advisers will help FDOT build skills as each project proceeds through the lengthy process of approval, Barry said.
“As long as we have a willing Legislature and governor, there’s going to be continued interest in P3s,” he said. “It will never be a majority of DOT’s business, but it is another tool in the tool box.”
FDOT has been doing small P3 projects since 1984 mostly as design-build contracts. Now the agency has a long list of what it considers
The site also includes links to Florida’s most recent law governing P3 projects. A bill refining the law, HB 985, awaits Gov. Charlie Crist’s signature.
New Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos, who Crist appointed earlier this year, voiced her support for P3s at a meeting in southwest Florida on Monday that included discussion about highly congested Interstate 75.
The Southwest Florida Expressway Authority is studying the use of a public-private partnership to widen the interstate sooner than currently planned by the Transportation Department because of the region’s fast growth rate.
FDOT currently is widening the four-lane interstate to six lanes between Fort Myers and Naples, but studies show that the road will need to be 10 lanes a few years after the six-lane widening is complete.
Kopelousos said the Expressway Authority, created by the Legislature specifically to advance widening of the interstate, was “ahead of the issue” in its discussions.
Two major upcoming jobs that FDOT expects to be P3s are the Interstate 595 Project in Broward County, currently estimated to cost $1.5 billion, and the First Coast Outer Beltway in Jacksonville, which is estimated to cost $1.8 billion.
FDOT soon will schedule a P3 industry forum on the
A P3 or design-build-finance contract is being considered for the I-595 project “to expedite the construction of the express lanes to accelerate significant capacity and operational improvements for the corridor,” and to potentially provide a finance mechanism for a funding shortfall, according to the latest documents regarding the project. A P3 could advance the construction of the unfunded projects by as much as 10 years through the tolling of the express lanes.
The beltway would provide a system-to-system connection, outside of the existing Interstate 295 loop around the Jacksonville area, between Interstate 10 in Duval County and Interstate 95 in St. Johns County. The project consists of 13 new interchanges and a major new bridge for a total of 46.5 miles.
FDOT held a P3 forum concerning the beltway on March 28 to assess the financial feasibility of a design-build-finance-operate-maintain contract, according to the latest information about the project. The schedule calls for requesting qualifications from firms this fall and inviting proposals in the spring of 2008, with selection of a contractor in early 2009.
FDOT has been including P3 discussions and projects under consideration in its forums and conferences for some time.
In fact, the first joint conference on P3s sponsored by FDOT and the Florida Transportation Builders Association is scheduled for July 11 in Tampa.
The one-day conference includes topics such as Florida’s legislation governing public-private partnerships, the procurement process, and financing, as well as overviews of P3 projects, such as the Port of Miami Tunnel, the First Coast Outer Beltway, and the I-595 Project.
The conference also includes a panel discussion with notable P3 transportation developers Zachry Construction Corp., the Spanish developer Cintra-Concessiones Infraestructuras de Transporte, Transurban Limited, Dragados SA, and Phil Russell, director of the Texas Turnpike Authority. Firms involved in financing P3s will be on another panel, including the Carlyle Group.
