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Los Angeles/Long Beach Market Report
Long Beach Courthouse project may open the way for more state public-private partnership programs
By Robert Carlsen
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| A look at one of the state’s first public-private partnership projects in Long Beach as well as a progress report on a Pierce College project. |
The antiquated, seismically-challenged Long Beach Courthouse is being primed as the pilot project of a state public-private partnership program.
Public-private partnerships – also called P3s -- are a way for cash-strapped governments to get construction projects off the ground and completed. States, counties or municipalities pick an entity consisting of a team (usually financial/developer, design, construction and facilities management firms) that oversees the construction of the project and that then leases back the facility to the government for 20 or more years.
In addition to California’s critical (and well-documented) infrastructure needs, the state’s courthouses and court facilities are also facing the results of age and serious overcrowding.
The state Office of Court Construction and Management leads the Administrative Office of the Courts’ implementation of the Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002, which was landmark legislation that shifts governance of California’s courthouses from the counties to the state. OCCM’s work includes long-term facilities master planning for the trial courts; strategic planning for capital outlay and funding to support new courthouse design and construction; and facility and real estate management for California’s trial and appellate courts. OCCM was created in August 2003 as a division of the AOC, the staff agency to the Judicial Council of California.
Robert Emerson, assistant director for business and planning at OCCM, says that the Long Beach Courthouse is one of 125 that have already been transferred to the state’s jurisdiction. In the past year, the OCCM has been conducting a priority process to find court facilities that need the most attention. Facilities were placed in five groups – immediate, critical, high, medium and low. Long Beach was on the “immediate” list.
Last summer, the AOC sought legal services to establish a P3 to fund the replacement of the Long Beach courthouse, which was built in 1959. Initial plans are to build a seven-story, 306,500-sq-ft building that will include at least 31 courtrooms and all court-support areas, basement-level secure parking garage, vehicle sally port, in-custody holding cells, surface parking and landscaping.
Clifford Ham, OCCM principal architect and project manager of the Long Beach court building project, says that currently the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, of the California Legislature is considering the performance expectations and benchmark criteria for this project. If the committee concurs that pursuing a performance-based infrastructure (PBI) approach for delivery of the new Long Beach court building is beneficial to the state, the AOC will engage in a competitive selection process to solicit proposals from potential PBI Project Companies. The AOC would first request qualifications (RFQ) from consortia of finance, design, construction, and facilities management companies. A small number of the most qualified consortia who responded to the RFQ would be requested to prepare proposals in response to detailed facility performance standards, and proposed contract terms. Ham says a date is not set for release of the RFQ.
One of the probable teams may well include PCL Construction Services, a Glendale general contractor with headquarters in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. P3s are popular in Canada (as well as in London and Australia, where the concept was born).
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Bob Martz, PCL’s regional vice president-Southwest USA, was previously based in the company’s Western Canada division in Vancouver, B.C.
“British Columbia was a province that definitely had struggles with how to get infrastructure in place, and the government there was in favor of P3s,” Martz says.
“We’ve been through this process before and we’ve been successful. What’s crucial now, especially in California, is getting the financing together. The pursuit of these projects is quite expensive, too.”
 PCL is in the midst of several P3 projects in Canada (Anthony Henday Drive, Southeast Leg, Edmonton; the Durham Consolidated Courthouse in Oshawa, Ontario; and the North Bay Regional Health Centre in Ontario), and is pursuing a P3 project in Florida (the Interstate 595 Corridor Roadway Improvements).
Martz says that in bridge and road projects, the team’s operating and maintenance firms handle toll collection.
Also interested in contributing to the Long Beach Courthouse project is Babcock & Brown, an international investment and specialized fund and asset management company founded in San Francisco in 1977. The firm has consulted on hundreds of P3 projects worldwide.
“What P3s do essentially is centralize expertise,” says Duncan Olde, joint “head” of Babcock & Brown’s transportation and social infrastructure division. “And, of course, get projects going sooner.”
Olde says he’s encouraged by California’s interest in P3s, especially Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s efforts to install a performance-based infrastructure program, essentially a P3 system for infrastructure projects (see sidebar).
Olde says that P3s have become a global phenomenon, but the foremost critics have been the public service unions, who see the system as a way to outsource government jobs.
“What needs to be done is to take these critics head-on, and show that other countries have succeeded and that there have been ongoing employment opportunities for both public and private,” he says.
P3s are a way to tap into more resources, adds the OCCM’s Ham.
“When a state like California is looking at $500 billion in infrastructure needs, you’ve got to look at different ways to do projects quicker and in the public interest,” he says.
Efforts Under Way to Pass P3 Legislation
By Robert Carlsen
Both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have been vigorously championing the use of P3s in their respective kingdoms, but so far no real progress has been made.
In his State of the State address in January, the governor urged the broader use of performance-based infrastructure programs (basically the same as public-private partnerships) for building and financing infrastructure projects.
In order to get the ball rolling, Schwarzenegger backed Assembly Bill 2600 (Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks) that would establish “PBI California,” a center for “excellence to help determine which projects can benefit from PBI, represent the state in negotiations with PBI participants, ensure transparency and monitor performance.”
The measure was voted down in April by the Assembly Business and Professions Committee.
Mayor Villaraigosa, in his State of the City address earlier this year, called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to “seek proposals to privately fund, build and operate an expanded transit system in LA.”
MTA was urged to issue an RFI last month and work with interested parties to provide data on P3 funding ideas and to report back to the MTA Board of Directors in July.
The mayor says that a long-term solution to the area’s gridlock is “rail.”
Meanwhile, another State Assembly bill addressing P3s, 2278 (Anna Caballero, D-Salinas), passed the Business and Professions Committee in late April. This was an amended version of both AB 2600 and Caballero’s previous effort, AB 1756, and it calls for consulting and legal services in the governor’s Office of Planning and Research to assist local governments in setting up public-private partnerships for construction projects.
The bill now goes to the Appropriations Committee and will await a legislative vote on whether to fund the measure or not, says Megan Taylor, chief of staff for the assemblywoman.
Caballero’s AB 1756 did not make it out of the committee due to intense lobbying by the Professional Engineers in California Government, a representative of 13,000 engineers, architects, land surveyors and related professionals who work for the state of California.
PECG is adamantly against public-private partnerships as well as design-build project delivery, and label both methods as “proven taxpayer rip-offs,” according to Bruce Blanning, executive director. PECG says it saves taxpayers “hundreds of millions of dollars each year,” and it pressures the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to use state engineers exclusively on all the department’s projects.
--Robert Carlsen
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Piercing Together
Pierce College projects maintain cultural, historical appeal
By Greg Aragon
Pierce College officials only had to look around campus to find inspiration for their two new construction projects.
“We prepared a master plan and told the architects to design buildings that reflect the college’s Spanish architecture,” says David Tsao, Pierce campus project manager.
Totaling $64 million, the two projects include the $46 million Center for the Sciences and the $18 million Student Services Center.
Pierce College is a two-year community college located in Woodland Hills, about 25 mi northwest of Los Angeles.
The 109,000-sq-ft Center for the Sciences, which broke ground in August, consists of two buildings on a three-acre site. When complete in September 2009, the design will be highlighted by red tile roofs, open courtyards, arches and balconies.
The 100,000-sq-ft, two-story main building will house the departments of life sciences, chemistry, physics, agriculture and nursing, as well as a planetary science division with a planetarium. There will also be offices and lecture rooms.
A 9,000-sq-ft secondary building will house the college’s veterinary technology facilities.
“The college always had these programs, but they were scattered all over the place,” Tsao says. “This new complex will bring all of these related programs together and make it easier for them to communicate.”
The center is going for a LEED silver rating. LEED highlights include waterless or low-flow urinals; water-efficient landscaping; occupied work stations with 75% daylighting; low-VOC-emitting adhesives and sealants;
low VOC-emitting paints; and low-or-zero-VOC-emitting carpet.
The project is located on the far west side of campus, on the site of old portable bungalows.
San Francisco-based Hellumuth, Obata, Kassabaum is the architect; Sinanian Development, Inc. of Tarzana is general contractor; and Swinerton Management of Los Angeles is construction manager.
Across campus from the Center for the Sciences, Santa Monica-based Widom Wein Cohen O’Leary has designed the college’s new 50,000-sq-ft Student Services Building.
“The architecture is a modern interpretation of a mission style, with red clay tile roofs, white cream plaster, and punched windows with deep-set openings,” says Andrea Cohen Gehring, FAIA, design partner with WCCOT.
Located at the southern tip of the school’s main Pedestrian Mall, the three-story student building will be an icon for new students, Gehring says.
“The building was strategically placed for first-time students and visitors to see it as they walk up the street,” she adds. “It was meant to be the campus’ welcoming building.”
Like the Center for the Sciences complex, the new Student Services Building will also combine into one complex services previously scattered around campus. When complete in July 2009, the structure will house admissions and records, financial aid, transfers, counseling, health services, computer labs and more.
“The whole intent is to make the building as easy as possible and as attractive as possible for new students who want to register here,” Tsao says.
The U-shaped project, which is being built by Van Nuys-based AKG Construction Inc., will be highlighted by open-air hallways with arcades. There also will be a bell tower and a 2,750-sq-ft outdoor courtyard with benches, shade trees and meeting space.
In anticipation of a LEED silver rating, the project will implement numerous sustainable features such as dual-glazed windows, low-flow toilets and waterless urinals, collection area for recyclables, erosion and sediment control, desert plants, and reduced water irrigation systems.
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