Winners at this Year's P3 Awards

As mentioned in a previous post, the P3 Awards are held yearly to recognize and celebrate projects and individuals in the P3 space. This year many incredible projects and teams were nominated but only some of them took home a prize. This year’s great panel of judges worked hard to select the winning teams, and we wish to highlight some of the standout selections.

Best Utilities Projects

When we think P3, we often think of utilities and similar infrastructure, and this year we had some great projects in this category. Among them were the EquiFlow Lead-Free Program, the Arizona Middle-Mile Fiber Infrastructure Operations, Maintenance, and Commercialization Services, and the Henry Ford Health System Central Utility Plant Project.

The EquiFlow project, is a partnership between CIP and the City of Wausau. It is a transformative effort to provide lead-free drinking water to the residents of the City, and aims to replace 8000 lead pipes by 2028. As of today, over 500 homes have had their pipes replaced free of charge, with free water bottles being provided for the family’s use during the replacement. The program also provides an interactive map where residents can go and check the status of the replacement or sign up for the program.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has partnered with eX² Technology to expand broadband access and improve digital equity throughout Arizona. For over 200 miles along Arizona's I-17, I-19 and I-40W corridors, the program will provide operations, maintenance and commercialization services for conduit, fiber, wireless and other network infrastructure assets. This will lay the groundwork, literally and figuratively, for broadband expansion into underserved areas in Arizona, connecting those residents to the rest of the world.

Henry Ford Health currently has a health campus in Detroit which is set to become one of the country’s largest fully electric-capable hospital facilities. In order to achieve this, it requires an expansion of energy and climate control capacity for its new buildings. The Central Utility Plant Project aims to provide the heating and cooling needed, fully electrically. “As a health system, we plan to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050,” said Robin Damschroder, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Business Development Officer for Henry Ford Health. “What will be happening inside the Central Energy Hub is a meaningful example of how we are making our sustainability pledges a reality.” Work on the facility is expected to begin in late 2024 and should be finished in the spring of 2027.

The judges finally selected the EquiFlow Lead-Free Program as the winner in this category. I think it is a really interesting program that can serve as a model for other localities looking to replace older infrastructure and where homeowners would typically have to shoulder some of the cost.

Best Social Infrastructure Project

Social infrastructure is a class of assets that ensure people in a community can join together and interact. In this category, a number of great projects were submitted for evaluation, such as the Appalachian State University Innovation District, UCLA Research Park, and the New Clackamas County Circuit Courthouse Project.

The Appalachian State University Innovation District is a multiphased development that plans to deliver academic buildings, faculty housing, energy labs, research spaces, and a zero-carbon district energy system. The project is expected to drive regional economic development and exemplify sustainable energy practices. Construction for the first phase of the Innovation District began in July 2023, and is planned to open in 2025. UCLA Research Park is based around a former shopping mall, UCLA will be converting it into a hub for biomedical research. The California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy will be the anchor tenant at the Park. The people involved expect thousands of workers to be centered around the park, and for it to be up and running in three years. Finally, according to Clackamas County, “The new courthouse building and facilities will replace the current courthouse that was built in 1936 and designed to serve a population of less than 50,000. Clackamas County’s population now exceeds 430,000 and continues to grow.” Given this demand, a new courthouse was needed, and this project aims to provide an increased number of courtrooms, assembly spaces, office space, holding cells, a law library, and more. The project is expected to be completed next year.

Ultimately, the judges chose to award the prize to the new Clackamas Courthouse, but all of these projects serve a critical role in providing spaces for people to meet and engage in their communities, and is an important asset class for P3 developers to study and focus on.

Best Transportation Projects

In our last post we covered the finalists in this category, and the incredible work that’s being done. One of the projects, Brightline Florida, took home the prize for Best Transportation System Project, beating out Electricbus. The judges were impressed with the growth of the company and the many Transit Oriented Developments the company is involved with, while growing its private rail system across Florida. As for the Best Transportation Facility, the Puerto Rican P3 authority and Winston & Strawn took home the prize for their San Juan Cruise Port Terminal. The Authority also won Government Procurer of the year, which is no surprise given the amount of P3’s they are currently soliciting and engaged with.

Individual Awards

There were a number of awards presented to individuals this year as well. The categories here were Lifetime Achievement Award, Leading Women in Infrastructure, and Future Leader of the Year. Many great candidates were nominated but ultimately only three people were chosen. Steve DeWitt, Senior Vice President Business Development at ACS Infrastructure Development Inc., won the Lifetime Achievement Award, Carol Pennycook, Partner at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg won Leading Women in Infrastructure, and finally, Alexis Rosenberg, Senior Associate at Ashurst won Future Leader of the Year. All were hard won prizes after which, the winners gave a short speech.