The project, which is located in Downtown Long Beach, is expected to attract residents and jobs.

LONG BEACH, CA—The City of Long Beach and the Port of Long Beach have come to a financial close on the $520 million Long Beach Civic Center project, a public-private mixed-use development led by a public-private partnership known as P3. The development is the first of its kind in the US to be completed under a single integrated design-build-finance-operate-maintain procurement. Design and consulting services firm Arup served as the lead advisor to the Port of Long Beach throughout the development.

Plenary Group is leading the P3 project, acting as the developer and is providing $21 million as the sole equity provider for the group, which includes Clark Construction, Edgemoor, Johnson Controls and SOM. With the financial close, the development plans will move forward. “The old Long Beach courthouse is being demolished, and the new city hall will be built in the footprint of that old building,” Orion Fulton, Arup's project team leader, tells GlobeSt.com. “That demolition will be done at the end of May, and there will be a ground breaking sometime in June when the new civic center project will begin formal construction. It is a 36-month construction schedule, and it will be another year after that before the project is completely done. By the summer 2019, the City should be moving into its new facilities.” Arup was retained to manage the design and construction process for the City and the design for the Port.

Additional financing for the costly development comes from Allianz, which, in a private placement, is providing $237 million in long-term financing; Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., which is providing a $213 million loan; and Long Beach, which is contributing $11.8 million in cash and land valued at nearly $30 million.

This unique public-private partnership proved to be a great solution for the city, which needed this massive development while minimizing its risk. “Long Beach has a poorly managed facility that is in a seismic zone, and it is suffering from deferred maintenance and it has a lot of balance sheet and credit rating worries,” adds Fulton. “It has a good rating now, but it doesn't want to lose that. Those ingredients led to the decision to pursue this particular model.”

The project, which is located in Downtown Long Beach, is expected to attract residents and jobs.