Public-private partnership used to fund Long Beach Civic Center Project

Arup announced that the City of Long Beach and Port of Long Beach have reached financial close for the $520 million Long Beach Civic Center Project.

The project includes a new city hall, port HQ, main library, public park, and street improvements. All the features are designed to be occupied within a week of a major earthquake and meet REDi Gold earthquake performance, an operational resilience rating system developed by Arup.

A public-private partnership (P3) was used to fund the project, which combines public infrastructure and private mixed-use real estate development into one design-build-finance-operate-maintain arrangement.

Arup, the global interdisciplinary consulting and design services firm, served as lead advisor to the city and Port of Long Beach. The firm led financial, commercial, real estate, design, engineering, and cost consulting advisory services. 

Long Beach, Calif. Photo: Zen Skillicorn/Creative Commons.

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.

Plenary Group is the lead P3 developer, sole equity provider, and financial arranger for the consortium, which includes Clark Construction, Edgemoor, Johnson Controls, and SOM. 

Allianz, in a private placement, is providing $237 million in long-term financing. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. is providing a $213 million loan. Long Beach would contribute $11.8 million in cash and land valued at nearly $30 million. Plenary is contributing $21 million in equity.

Arup managed the entire process from the RFP to the end of negotiations and helped the project become a reality quicker than expected.

"A significant value added for the city is how the P3 model accelerated what would more conventionally have been a three- to five-year project development process using traditional project delivery methods to a two-year process," Orion Fulton, Arup's project team leader, said. 

Arup has served as an advisor for numerous projects, including Presidio Parkway in San Francisco, the Los Angeles Convention Center, and the New Champlain Bridge in Quebec.

Construction has begun, and the next phase of the project is being launched.