Five New High Schools Being Built Under a DBFM Contract in Alberta

On September 28, 2021, Concert-Bird Partners reached financial close on its $300 million Alberta P3 school bundle, “Five New High Schools in Alberta Project.”

The project entails the design, build, finance and maintenance (“DBFM”) of five Alberta high schools located in Leduc, Blackfalds, Langdon and two in Edmonton. Once completed, the schools will accommodate nearly 7,000 students. The designs for the schools include sustainable considerations and energy conservation systems, and methods that are intended to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (“LEED”) Silver Certification for each school.

This is the first social infrastructure P3 project in Alberta in a long time, which is relatively important as a signal to the market that the province is ready to implement the P3 model again for procuring its infrastructure projects.

Concert-Bird Partners is a consortium comprised of Bird Capital Limited Partnership, Bird Design-Build Construction Inc., Concert Infrastructure Ltd., Ainsworth Inc., BR2 Architecture and Wright Construction Western Inc.

McMillan acted as counsel to the project consortium in connection with this social infrastructure project. The national team was expertly led by Candy Saga and Julie Han, supported by Shahen Mirakian and Brent Thomas.

McMillan’s Project Finance & P3 industry group is made up of lawyers with deep experience in the structuring and execution of major infrastructure projects. We are known for having a collaborative, problem solving approach to closing projects and meeting the requirements and financial objectives of both procurement authorities and private partners. We provide a complete range of services related to infrastructure, including assistance with procurement, construction, financing, environmental review, community consultation, tax and regulatory issues. We have been involved in transactions of all types of public infrastructure arrangements including privatizations, outsourcing arrangements, public-private partnerships, concessions, leases and alternative financing structures. Having acted for parties on all side: lenders, consortia, primary subcontractors and public authorities, we are uniquely positioned to advise and represent all relevant stakeholders.