California's Governor Jerry Brown signed on Aug. 11 the Long Beach Civic Center bill into law. Authored by State Senator Ricardo Lara, SB 562 clarifies existing law by placing various sections of State law and case law governing the public-private procurement process into a single section of State law for the Long Beach Civic Center project.

SB 562 combines existing State and case law applicable to lease-leaseback public-private partnerships, and Design-Bid-Finance-Operate-Maintain (DBFOM) public-private partnerships. In doing so, SB 562 codifies a hybrid DBFOM/lease-leaseback public-private partnership model, specific to the Long Beach Civic Center Project.

Without SB 562 the City can still legally deliver the Project, as the Civic Center procurement process is consistent with existing State regulations. However, this procurement process has been used only for infrastructure, and not specifically City Hall buildings. The Civic Center project benefits with SB 562 special legislation as it reduces the risk of legal challenge to the project, and enables the City to invest a greater amount of resources into the tangible aspects of the development rather than financing costs.

The Long Beach (California) City Council and the Board of Harbor Commissioners awarded the contract to develop the Long Beach civic center P3 to the Plenary - Edgemoor Civic Partners.

The team beat out competition from Long Beach CiviCore Alliance, led by the Macquarie Group. The winning team is composed by Plenary Group, Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, Clark Construction Group, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Johnson Controls.

The Civic Center project is designed to keep the City's annual payment at approximately the same amount that the City currently pays for Civic Center maintenance and operation, as well as off-site leases.

The  Plenary - Edgemoor Civic Partners proposal involves the development of 200-room hotel, 594 to 612 residential units, up to 47,838 square feet of retail space, 11-story City Hall, and 93,500 square feet of library space. The proposal placed separate-but-connected city and port administrative buildings. The new buildings will be located at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue in the city of Long Beach.

The Plenary - Edgemoor Civic Partners will assume construction responsibilities and maintain the finished buildings while the city will pay rent for 40 years. The city will also sell six acres on the site to the team for a total of US$29 million. At the end of the term, control of public buildings and land would revert back to the city.

The total project investment is estimated at US$357.7 million, US$179 million for port headquarters and US$178.7 million for City Hall, Main Library and Lincoln Park.