A New York school district keen to redress its ageing infrastructure will ask Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Macquarie Capital and URS Corporation if a public-private partnership (PPP) can offer a viable fix.
Yonkers Public Schools picked the trio Tuesday after undertaking a request for proposals in November for an advisory team to help explore privatisation as a possible method to raise $700 million for phase one of what could be the first social infrastructure PPP for a public school system in the US.
The district in a statement hailed the “deep bench” of the three member group, crediting Freshfields, Macquarie and URS as a “highly experienced” team that has “worked collaboratively and successfully”.
Law firm Freshfields was involved in the landmark Chicago metered parking concession, while Macquarie is an oft-used financial adviser in several privatisation processes. San Francisco-headquartered URS is a publicly trading engineering firm.
The district announced an advisory shortlist for the project in March that, in addition to the Freshfields-Macquarie-URS team, included:
-Ernst & Young, Delafield & Wood, Davis LLP, Gensler, Jeffrey Parker & Associates, and Turner & Townsend;
-KPMG, Faithful & Gould and Fulbright & Jaworski;
-Alvarez & Marsal, The Robert Bobb Group, Frasca and Associates, Fanning Howey, and DLA Piper;
-Harris Beach, National Development Council, William Mascetta and Associates, and Fuller and D’Angelo;
-Jonathan Rose Companies, The Kolluri Group, FTI Consulting, DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr, and The Tocci Group;
-Public Financial Management, CPM, Orrick, and Herrington & Sutcliffe;
-Yonkers Schools Accelerators, Savin Engineers, Greenhill & Company, Tetra Tech Engineers, and McKenna Long & Aldridge.
The district has envisioned the PPP as a design, build, and maintain contract and is hopeful that a formal assessment on the feasibility of the project can be completed by the end of the summer.
A recent long-term evaluation identified a total $1.7 billion in renovation needed for the 40-school district, according to Yonkers Public Schools.