Infrastructure & P3

Our team prides itself on providing a full-spectrum of services to its clients, including:

• Critical planning
• Procurement
• Contracting
• Financial close-out
• Project implementation
• Design
• Construction
• Operation
• Maintenance
• Claims and dispute resolution
• Refinancing

Our Infrastructure and P3 team’s deep experience provides insight into infrastructure projects and different delivery methods. 

Our professionals are leaders in their respective fields and include:

• Former Chairman and member of the Florida Transportation Commission, overseeing FDOT’s annual $5-plus billion infrastructure budget
• Former Chairman of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, overseeing the $500-plus million Western Beltway Project and $330 million Southern Connector Project, while instituting electronic toll lanes
• Former Chairman and member of the University of Florida’s Board of Trustees during a period of meteoric growth and development
• General Counsel to the Jacksonville Transportation Authority 
• Member of the General Counsel team at the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority
• Former Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago who advised senior City officials on P3 agreements and initiatives, including the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge concession agreement 

Our clients span industry sectors

Nelson Mullins’ Infrastructure and P3 team is composed of industry attorneys with deep-seated knowledge of large-scale, unique, and first-of-their-kind infrastructure projects of all types. We are committed to working with our clients to craft personalized solutions.

Our clients include the following industries:

• Transportation Infrastructure: 
  • Airports 
  • Highways, Toll Facilities, Bridges, and Tunnels 
  • Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) 
  • Rail and People Mover Systems 
  • Intermodal Facilities
  • Transit Systems
  • Seaports
• Social Infrastructure: 
  • Courthouses
  • Educational Facilities, University Housing, and Campus Facilities
  • Federal Buildings, Facilities, and Grounds
  • Housing
  • Hospitals
  • Military Facilities
  • Municipal Facilities
  • Parking Facilities
  • Prisons
  • Public Safety Centers
  • Smart Cities
  • Sports Stadiums
  • Theaters and Museums
  • Distressed Assets
• Private Industry Infrastructure: 
  • Commercial
  • Hospitality
  • Mixed-Use Facilities
  • Multi-Family Residential
  • Senior Living Communities
• Power, Telecommunications, and Utility Infrastructure: 
  • Electric Grid and Dams
  • Energy Systems, Networks, and Facilities
  • Fiber Optic Networks and Telecommunications
  • Fuel and Compressed Natural Gas Projects
  • Pipelines
  • Recycling Facilities and Resource Recovery Facilities
  • Waterways and Water & Drainage Systems
  • Wastewater Systems

Our multi-industry project experience adds value to our clients; we are hands-on and hit the ground running.

The Infrastructure and P3 Team has effectively navigated the evolution of P3s and is experienced with transactional, finance, local, state, and federal policy, and regulatory elements of P3s. Drawing from these experiences, Nelson Mullins’ Infrastructure and P3 attorneys are committed to understanding their clients’ needs and tailoring specialized solutions to fit those needs, whether you are an owner, developer or concessionaire, or lender.

Whether a project is going as planned, or if unexpected procurement challenges, claims, or political and policy changes arise, our experience helps solve your problems.

We have experience and technical skills to identify the issue, craft cost-effective strategies, and provide personalized solutions.

• Project identification and assessment to evaluate finance options
• Project financing strategy to maximize project delivery
• Procurement planning to customize selection processes to project needs
• Contract negotiations with all project stakeholders to deliver integrated project documents
• Financial close-out to comply with project requirements 
• Project implementation and management to carry out contract requirements and avoid operational impacts
• Operation and maintenance to ensure optimal performance
• Claims and dispute resolution to avoid delays and cost-impacts

Following is a selected sampling of matters and is provided for informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in any future matter.

Aviation and Space

• Currently serving as lead counsel on Orlando International Airport’s $4.2 billion Capital Improvement Program involving a new international terminal, intermodal facility for high-speed rail, automated people mover systems, and all associated infrastructure and technology, with daily involvement on all policy, procurement, contract, oversight, and risk and claims management issues; also managing more than $1 billion in new expansion projects
• Served as lead counsel to the multiple-party, public-private venture between an international airport, state department of transportation and a U.S.-based regional airline, to relocate its headquarters, operations facility, and maintenance facilities, on a design-build operate and maintain basis, handling all transactional and grant instruments, procurement and contracting, and project close-out
• Served as a peer review consultant on an approximately $5 billion P3 automated people mover system project for a U.S. airport, which is being delivered on a DBFOM basis
• Served as outside counsel to private developer on a multi-phase, commercial space launch facility and manufacturing plant involving $750 million in infrastructure development with hybrid, public, and private funding sources, and a rocket launch platform valued around $250 million
• Served as consultant on a $120 million consolidated rental car facility (CONRAC) project at an airport, updating all procurement documents, selection processes, and construction management agreement
• Currently serving as advisory, procurement, and contract counsel for a California international airport with an expansion program of approximately $1.3 billion (including parking garage and CONRAC facilities)

Bridges, Highways, Tunnels

• Currently representing a state department of transportation as infrastructure and construction counsel on various large-scale capital improvement projects, including an approximate $500 million design-build bridge project
• Represented Osceola Expressway in a P3 project for the acquisition, construction, and equipping of a toll road facility in Osceola County, Florida, involving the State of Florida, Osceola County, Polk County, Osceola Expressway Authority, and a private developer
• Served as counsel to the Central Florida Expressway Authority in connection with the negotiation and preparation of the material agreements between the Authority, the Florida Department of Transportation, and private landowners for the acquisition, construction, and equipping of the Wekiva Parkway Project
• Served key role in developing a P3 that resulted in building the Southern Connector Extension and Osceola Parkway ($450 million), which involved a partnership between private landowners who contributed property towards the acquisition, construction, and equipping of a toll road facility in western Orange County, Florida
• Served as counsel on both the Port of Miami Tunnel and I-75 private/public road projects, representing separate consortiums of entities bidding on each project
• Served as P3 Advisory Counselors to the Osceola County Expressway Authority on its evaluation of implementing P3 on its 2040 Master Plan, a structured series of expressways circumnavigating the County; handled policy development, procurement, contracting and bid protest on the $75 million Osceola Parkway design-build project

Higher Education and Social Infrastructure

• Counsel to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia in connection with the design of its university housing P3 program and preparation of its initial procurement
• Currently serving as issuer’s counsel and bond counsel to a state higher education facilities authority in connection with an approximately $60 million refinancing of certain student facility projects on various university campuses
• Served as lead counsel for a Florida municipality on its public-private transaction with the New York Mets for the development of a new sports complex and spring training stadium, negotiating the Facilities Use Agreement, and handling all public procurement and contracting for the design, oversight, and construction of the facility
• Served as counsel on the Miami Dolphin Stadium project, which included an installment purchase contract, a leasehold mortgage, and assignments of the respective rights

Port and Maritime

• Served as lead counsel for St. Lucie County for the competitive procurement and contracting of a public-private deal for the development, renovation, and operation of the Port of Fort Pierce, Florida, for the conversion into a commercial “mega-yacht” port facility 

Power and Utility Infrastructure

• Currently serving as lead counsel for a municipality on a $750 million waste-to-energy transfer facility on a public-private partnership (P3) basis
• Currently representing two contiguous Florida counties on approximately $350 million in wastewater treatment plant projects, deep well and water conveyance lines systems, using a mix of advanced delivery methodologies
• Served as counsel to Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) on its Public-Private Partnership project for a compressed natural gas facility, from conceptual planning to procurement and contracting, preparing all policies, procurement documents, and contracts; currently involved on JTA’s urban connector people mover system P3 project 

Private Industry

• Currently leading the infrastructure delivery of a $2.8 billion electric vehicle battery plant project for a foreign manufacturer on a state incentive grant basis, handling the procurement, negotiation and drafting of all professional services and multiple construction contracts
• Currently serving as lead contractor counsel on the negotiation and implementation, on a state incentive grant basis, of a $300 million manufacturing plant for an international retailer
• Currently serving as counsel on over $200 million in infrastructure development for one of the largest senior living campuses in Florida, handling all procurement, contracting, and claims management on residential tower projects, health center, and associated facilities, including its current master plan development
• Served as counsel to developer of Orlando’s “Medical City,” a multi-billion dollar, 650-acre medical corridor with over several billion in ongoing construction, involved in legal aspects related to development and construction of infrastructure, procurement, and contracting, including the multi-party, public-private partnership transaction for the Burnham Institute

International

• Represented oil brokers in drafting and negotiating PPAs and bulk oil purchase agreements
• Represented a U.S. power company in setting up a joint venture for bagasse power plants in Guatemala 
• Advised Spanish owner of half of the Dominican Republic electric transmission sector of its options to exit that sector 
• Established a SPAC to acquire sugar plantations in Brazil to produce ethanol 
• Advised the financing of power plants in Mexico and Nicaragua
• Represented an unsuccessful U.S. bidder in the privatization of a power plant in the Dominican Republic 
• Represented a U.S. oil company in an arbitration against Libya relating to its expropriation of the oil company
• Created a grantor trust and facilitated the sale of a major electric energy company in Venezuela to that grantor trust 

Rail and APM

• Served as counsel to a public awarding authority on a billion-dollar design-build light rail project; legal services include procurement, contract, risk management/insurance, and claim issues arising on the project 
• Served as General Counsel to JTA on its intermodal transit program, including special advisor to the U2C autonomous vehicle people mover system project, a proposed p3 system
• Served as private counsel to the only American-led, shortlisted team for Florida High Speed Rail P3 procurement issued by the Florida Department of Transportation, providing multi-disciplinary advice on public affairs and process, procurement, contract review and risk management 

Technology and Telecommunications

• Served as lead counsel on over $150 million in innovative technology procurements for an international airport, involving smart building controls, gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technology, low voltage, and seamless 4k UHD LED/Video technology, and smart parking control and revenue systems, on customized  design-build-operate-maintain (DBOM) methodologies, developing all procurement documents, testing, and product demonstration protocols, presiding over public selection meetings, and negotiating and drafting all contractual instruments

Claims, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Litigation

• Currently serving as lead trial counsel to a state department of transportation on approximately $200 million in claims on a $500 million design-build project
• Successfully defended a federal court protest and emergency injunction action against Orlando International Airport’s DBOM procurement of an approximate $220 million Automated People Mover system project
• Successfully defended a federal court protest and emergency injunction action against Osceola County Expressway Authority on its design-build highway and bridging system project (approximately $78 million), a critical link to its master plan highway network
• Developed a Dispute Review Board process for Orlando International Airport CIP projects, including a “Super-DRB” for its multibillion-dollar terminal program, creating a mechanism for early resolution of disputes, saving many millions in claims, and lowering incidence of suit to a rare occurrence
• Achieved a favorable, global resolution prior to trial when representing the Program Manager for Miami International Airport’s South Terminal Program, which spawned over $125 million in impact and delay claims
• Handled all claims and termination proceedings involving an ENR Top 10 Contractor on a $600-plus million CM@risk contract, and successfully negotiated a successor contract to take over, with no impact on schedule or ensuing claims
• Served as eminent domain and trial counsel to the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority on the Western Beltway expansion project, a $500-plus million dollar highway system, handling multiple evidentiary order of take hearings, mediations and dispute resolution proceedings, including a two-week jury trial in a damages claim arising from an elevated section of highway that bisected a luxury residential development 
• Served as lead counsel on an estimated $200 million design-build-operate-maintain (DBOM) project employing first-of-its-kind technology in the U.S., for an Independent Carrier Baggage Handling System for an international airport, overcoming several televised procurement challenges, an investigation into bidder collusion, ultimately achieving a successful contract well under budget 
• Served as litigation counsel for foundation subcontractor pursuing claims on I-95 bridge project in Providence, Rhode Island