FBT Project Finance Advisors, along with a team of attorneys from Frost Brown Todd, recently closed $68,670,000 par amount of tax-exempt bonds issued by the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. The bonds were sold at a premium to produce more than $74,500,000 of gross proceeds for the financing. FBT Project Finance Advisors acted as special municipal advisor to the Port Authority. Frost Brown Todd acted as bond counsel to the Port Authority and special counsel to the Concessionaire, ParkUToledo Inc.
This transaction is a unique public-private partnership (P3) involving not only a parking concession but also a mobility concession, utilizing a 35-year lease of all parking assets from the University of Toledo to ParkUToledo Inc., a new Ohio non-profit corporation created by the Port Authority. The Port Authority team, led by Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority CEO and President Thomas J. Winston, worked with FBT Project Finance Advisors, Diogenes Capital and KeyBanc Capital Markets to structure this unique concession.
The Project and Concessionaire team was led by Diogenes Capital as the asset manager and advisor to the Concessionaire, with SP+ Corporation as the operator and KeyBanc Capital Markets acting as the underwriter for the Bonds. FBT attorneys and David Teed, managing partner of Diogenes Capital (previously with Oaktree Capital and Queensland Investment Corporation), had worked together on the successful 2012 P3 parking concession for The Ohio State University (OSU). This team, along with KeyBanc and FBT Project Finance Advisors, used their OSU parking experience to create an updated P3 model using governmental tax-exempt bonds that generated a lower interest rate, a larger concession fee to the University, and more initial project capital and ongoing revenue for the University of Toledo. The University of Toledo was paid $52,500,000 upfront for the lease and concession and is projected to receive an additional amount of over $140,000,000 during the life of the deal.
Significantly, KeyBanc has advised that this was the lowest net interest rate P3 parking concession ever successfully completed in the U.S. That result was achieved by using tax-exempt bonds and several levels of reserves, including a $5,000,000 escrow created by the University of Toledo.
“This is a world-class team of professionals who worked together to produce a successful finance and operational structure for the University of Toledo and the Port Authority. It benefits the University’s students, administration, and educators as they engage in transforming the experience at its main campus and its nearby medical campus,”
FBT Project Finance Advisors President David Rogers.