Rebecca Maloney
Americas Press Office ,Boston
Arup was the City’s Lead Advisor providing financial, commercial, real estate, design, engineering, and cost consulting services on the $520m Long Beach Civic Center Project.
The New Long Beach Civic Center, a unique combination of infrastructure and private mixed-used real estate development, recently reached financial close. Developed under one integrated design-build-finance-operate-maintain procurement, a first in the United States, this pioneering project demonstrates the ability of the public and private sectors to develop innovative solutions.
Arup provided comprehensive advisory services integrating financial, commercial, real estate, design, engineering, and cost consulting. The Arup team included HOK for architecture consulting, BAE for real estate economics, and MBI Media for outreach. Sheppard Mullin provided legal advice to the owners and p3point consulted to the City's director of financial management.
“We are excited to see this deal move forward and to meet the goals set by the City three years ago when it embarked on the Civic Center P3 procurement. I’d like to congratulate and thank our City Council, City staff, our partners, and the Plenary-led consortium that helped us to reach this important milestone.
Mayor Robert Garcia.
Plenary Group is the lead P3 developer, sole equity provider and financial arranger for the consortium. Other consortium members include Clark Construction, Edgemoor, Johnson Controls, and SOM. Allianz is providing US$237m in long-term financing. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. is providing a US$213m loan. Long Beach would contribute US$11.8 million in cash and land valued at nearly $30m. Plenary is contributing $21 million in equity.
“Arup has been a real force behind our success with this project, helping us move it from a hunch to reality in such a short timeframe. They have shown great skill in helping the City and Port navigate a very complex transaction, managing the entire process from the RFP to the end of negotiations. We picked the right advisor.
Michael P. Conway, Director of Economic and Property Development and the project director.
Arup was also recently retained to manage the design and construction process for the City and the design for the Port. Now construction begins, launching the next phase of this exciting project.