The Bond Buyer announced the recipients of its annual
Winners have been named in 10 categories: one in each of The Bond Buyer's five regional areas of coverage along with five in additional categories. All award winners will be honored at a
The Bond Buyer's editorial board considered a range of factors when judging entries, including: creativity, the ability to pull a complex transaction together under challenging conditions, the ability to serve as a model for other financings, and the public purpose for which a deal's proceeds were used.
"This year's honorees reflect the full breadth of what municipal finance can deliver — from first-of-their-kind structures and record-setting transactions to smaller but high-impact deals meeting urgent local needs," said Mike Scarchilli, editor in chief of The Bond Buyer. "Together they showcase the ingenuity, discipline, and public-purpose focus that move communities forward, even amid challenging markets."
Here are the 2025 Deal of the Year award winners:
SOUTHWEST REGION
The Southwest Region winner is the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport for its $1.97 billion joint revenue refunding and improvement bonds. By pairing long fixed-rate debt with four- and seven-year mandatory-tender bonds, DFW reduced near-term borrowing costs and avoided external liquidity through a soft-put design.
MIDWEST REGION
The winner in the Midwest Region is the Columbus Regional Airport Authority's roughly $1.21 billion issuance of AMT and non-AMT airport revenue bonds, the inaugural issuance for a $2 billion capital program at John Glenn Columbus International. The transaction generated $4.11 billion in orders from 88 investors, expanding demand for AMT paper and allowing the authority to advance $175 million of additional projects.
NORTHEAST REGION
The Northeast Region winner is the New York Energy Finance Development Corporation's $944.15 million energy supply revenue bonds, which prepaid 30 years of electricity for the New York Power Authority in what was the first tax-exempt prepaid electricity transaction in New York. The deal created a new statewide conduit credit and provided a repeatable platform to integrate renewables in support of New York's climate goals.
SOUTHEAST REGION
The winner in the Southeast Region is the Virginia Port Authority for its first port revenue bond issue since 2016. This $248.7 million financing enabled a first-of-its-kind lease amendment at Virginia International Gateway, which secured a fixed-price option to purchase the terminal in 2065, funded a $335 million upfront rent payment and defeased all outstanding port revenue bonds and equipment leases while avoiding an 8% ticking fee.
FAR WEST REGION
The Far West Region winner is the Alaska Railroad Corporation's $112 million issuance of cruise port revenue bonds, which financed a new terminal and dock at the Port of Seward using a novel risk-transfer approach — purchasing the project with bond proceeds only after substantial completion, backed by ARRC equity and a pier usage agreement with minimum passenger guarantees.
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PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FINANCING
The winner in the Public-Private Partnership category is the Georgia SR 400 Express Lanes Project, which combined a record issuance of tax-exempt private-activity bonds, the largest TIFIA loan to date, and a 50-year concession that delivered a $3.8 billion upfront concession fee to the state while funding 16 miles of dynamically tolled lanes and future bus rapid transit improvements — harnessing private capital to accelerate delivery, reduce public cost, and improve mobility and safety across metro Atlanta.
GREEN FINANCING
The Green Financing winner is the New York Transportation Development Corporation's $1.95 billion green bond issuance for the JFK International Airport Terminal 6 redevelopment. The financing advances a high-efficiency terminal program featuring rooftop solar, fully electric ground support, and stormwater capture and reuse and drew strong multi-segment investor demand that allowed the offering to upsize.
INNOVATIVE FINANCING
The State of Wisconsin's $454.3 million general obligation refunding is the Innovative Financing award winner for pioneering the municipal market's first fixed-spread tender for tax-exempt bonds. By replacing the traditional fixed-price approach, Wisconsin reduced exposure to interest-rate volatility for both issuer and bondholders and established a repeatable model for liability management that many issuers can adopt to unlock economic savings while broadening investor engagement.
HEALTH CARE FINANCING
The winner in the Health Care Financing category is Sage Memorial Hospital for its $80 million offering of unrated tax-exempt bonds that recapitalized construction of a replacement hospital, an expanded outpatient clinic and badly needed workforce housing serving the Navajo community in Ganado, Arizona. Crucially, the team leveraged Sage's status as a tribal contractor to pledge non-traditional revenue agreements alongside net patient revenues — opening a replicable path to market for indigenous health systems.
SMALL ISSUER FINANCING
The Small Issuer Financing winner is the Kerrville Public Utility Board Public Facility Corporation, which entered the public markets with its inaugural bond sale to deliver a new peaking power plant for the Texas Hill Country. The financing pairs tax-exempt bonds with a low-interest loan from the Texas Energy Fund, bringing fresh capital to a critical, traditionally hard-to-fund need: local reliability.
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Also, for the 16th year, the Deal of the Year event will also include the presentation of the
The 2025 honorees are:
- PUBLIC SECTOR: Jeanette W. Weldon, executive director, Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority
- PRIVATE SECTOR: Elaine Brennan, president and executive director of the public finance department, Roosevelt & Cross
Along with Weldon and Brennan, whose awards will be presented by Freda Johnson, 12 other honorees from the public and private sectors will be recognized as
The public-sector Trailblazers are:
- Sherien N. Khella, treasurer, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
- Jill Jaworski, chief financial officer, City of Chicago
- Laura Farmer, chief financial officer, Virginia Department of Transportation
- Lisa Eisenberg, director of debt management, State of Ohio
- Sanna Wong-Chen, associate director, New York City Office of Management and Budget
- Meghan Gutekunst, associate vice president, University of California office of the president
The private-sector Trailblazers are:
- Julie Burger, managing director and co-head of public finance, Wells Fargo
- Nora Wittstruck, chief analytical officer, governments, S&P Global Ratings
- Pepe Finn, chair and CEO, Stern Brothers & Co
- Cathy Krawitz, head of municipal credit, Northwestern Mutual
- Kelly Hutchinson, partner, government and public finance, Katten
- Linda Vanderperre, managing director, Kroll Bond Rating Agency
