08 — Public Private Partnership (P3) Real Estate Advisory
Get the asset without putting it on your balance sheet.
Deal structure, capital sourcing and owner-side delivery — keeping mission, capital and execution aligned from the first term sheet through to handover.
Structure the partnership, deliver the asset.
- Land or a non-core asset the institution cannot fund but does not want to sell
- A capital project that bond capacity or the balance sheet will not carry
- Deferred maintenance that has outgrown the capital plan
- A developer proposal already on the table with no independent read on its terms
Public-private partnerships succeed when mission, capital and execution stay aligned from day one. Our platform brings all three under one roof — structuring the deal, sourcing the capital and managing delivery — so universities, agencies and institutions get the asset they need without carrying the cost and risk on their own balance sheet.
A public-private partnership is three agreements pretending to be one: what gets built, who funds it, and who carries the risk when it does not go to plan. Most come apart at the seams between them — the structure is negotiated by one team, the capital raised by another and delivery handed to a third, and each hands the next a set of constraints it had no part in choosing.
Bringing all three under one roof is the whole point. The structure gets chosen knowing what capital is actually available, the capital is raised against a delivery plan somebody has costed, and the institution keeps one accountable party from term sheet to handover. What a partnership trades away is control and long-term revenue — and those terms are settled at structuring, not discovered in year fifteen.
The work, itemized.
Structure selection
Whether the project is better served by a P3, a ground lease, a concession or conventional delivery — decided before a partner is approached.
Feasibility and market test
Whether the market will bid at all, on what terms, and what the institution would actually receive.
Capital sourcing
Institutional equity, debt, philanthropy and public funding assembled against the structure rather than after it.
Partner selection
Running the solicitation that finds a developer or operator able to deliver — and testing what they say they can.
Term negotiation
Rent, escalation, reversion, assignment and control rights: the terms that decide what the institution still holds in year thirty.
Risk allocation
Which party carries construction, operating and demand risk — priced deliberately rather than assumed.
Owner-side delivery
Project and development management through design, procurement and construction, representing the institution rather than the partner.
Governance and reporting
The approvals, board reporting and compliance the arrangement will carry for its full term.
Four stages, in order.
What clients ask first.
What is a public-private partnership in real estate?
An arrangement where a private partner finances, builds and often operates an asset the institution needs, in exchange for a long-term interest — typically a ground lease, a concession or an availability payment. The institution gets the building without funding it outright; the partner takes construction and often operating risk in return for a return across the term.
Does a P3 keep the project off our balance sheet?
Sometimes — and it turns on the structure and its accounting treatment rather than on the label. Whether the asset and the obligation are recognized depends on who controls the asset and who carries the risk, which is decided in the terms. Treat it as an outcome to design with your auditors, not a property of P3s in general.
What does the institution give up?
Control and long-term revenue. A ground lease or concession converts land or an asset into capital now, in exchange for another party holding rights over it for decades. That trade is frequently the right one; it should be a decision taken deliberately rather than a surprise years later.
How long does a P3 take to put in place?
Longer than a conventional procurement, because the structure, the capital and the partner all have to be settled before construction can begin. The variable is usually approvals — board, municipal or state — rather than the negotiation itself, which is why the approval path is worth mapping at the outset.
Can you review a proposal a developer has already put to us?
Yes, and it is a common starting point. An unsolicited proposal is written to the proposer advantage; an independent read on structure, terms and pricing is the cheapest part of the entire process.