Infrastructure

Patrick Harder, chair of the infrastructure practice group at Nossaman LLP, led the legal team advising Los Angeles World Airports and the City of Los Angeles on several aspects of one of the largest, most impactful and complex public-private partnership projects in the country.

Harder led both the commercial and financial close for the Automatic People Mover and Consolidated Rent-A-Car projects, cornerstones of a massive overhaul and modernization of the Los Angeles International Airport called the Landside Access Modernization Program.

With a collective contract value in excess of $7 billion, these projects are expected to improve the experience of traveling to and from Los Angeles.

Harder, who started work on these projects about three years ago, described the consolidated rent-a-car facility as a massive undertaking.

It "just reached financial close at the end of the year, so that was kind of a last step before they started construction," he said.

The automatic people mover project was about nine months ahead of that, he said, and construction is under way now.

"The people mover project is the largest single construction project ever awarded in the city of Los Angeles," Harder said.

He had an integral role in helping the public-private partnership project reach commercial close in April 2018 when the Los Angeles City Council approved a $4.9 billion agreement with the project's developers.

There was "no protest, which is pretty unheard of on a major construction project in [Los Angeles]," Harder added. The project reached financial close in June 2018.

The automatic people mover system will include six stations and up to nine electric powered trains, each with four cars, in simultaneous operation. The trains aim to ease access into and out of the second largest airport in the country and connect travelers to LA Metro's Crenshaw Light Rail Line, intermodal transportation facilities and a consolidated rental car center.

Ongoing operations at the airport brought one challenge to the deal.

"The idea that you're going to do such a massive amount of construction in an operating airport that's already facing strain from congestion, and do so in a way that doesn't further disrupt, [and] amplify the problems that are there is a key one," Harder said.

Another challenge was to make sure the community benefited from the project.

"Not just after it's completed, but during the construction by jobs and career opportunities, basically workforce development, ensuring that there's inclusivity in the awards of those projects," he explained. "So small businesses, minority-owned businesses, [and] women-owned businesses were all given real opportunities to get work."

Harder said he thoroughly enjoyed the interdisciplinary components of the deal.

"So basically the ability to rub shoulders with the engineers, to rub shoulders with the financiers, the financial advisors, and to work together to create something better than any one of us can create alone."

He said he's proudest of having done something that will ultimately benefit the public.

"It feels really nice to be able to go back after all the dust has settled and say, 'Look at that bridge. I had something to do with that,' or that tunnel or that airport," Harder added. "It's really satisfying and that's the part I love the most about these projects."

-- Skylar Dubelko