Yukiko Kojima

As the public-private partnership funding model continues trending as a growing practice throughout the country, Kojima continues to work at the forefront of these high-profile infrastructure projects that are fundamentally reshaping cities and regions.

Two infrastructure projects Kojima is advising on include the $1.8 billion Great Hall project at Denver International Airport and the $1.3 billion UC Merced 2020 Campus Expansion Project.

“One of the benefits of doing one of these projects is that you focus on the technical aspects, but then when it is ultimately successful, the project that comes out is really transformative for the entire community or really improves their lives,” she said.

Kojima leads the legal team advising the city and county of Denver on the airport project, which reached commercial close in August and financial close in December. It involves a complex, multifaceted upgrade of the airport’s signature main terminal and the development and management of a new concessions program within the terminal.

“It’s a very time- and resource-intensive project,” she said.

The public-private partnership aspect will relocate the main security checkpoints to modernize screening for the post-9/11 era.

For the campus expansion project, Kojima is co-lead on the Nossaman team advising the transaction, which reached commercial and financial close in late 2016. The project aims to accommodate growth of the university’s campus from its current 6,700 students to 10,000 students by 2020. It will have approximately 790,000 assignable square feet of new facilities, including student housing, administrative and research space, classrooms and recreation centers.

— Matthew Sanderson