ABA Annual Meeting - Division 4 Lunch Program re: Long Beach Court Building

With the growing popularity of Public/Private Partnerships, or P3s, we thought it would be interesting and informative to have one of the most talked about P3 projects in the country as the topic of our Division 4 Lunch Program at the ABA Annual Convention at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort. The topic will be the new Long Beach Court Building, as it is only miles from our Dana Point location, and certainly has had its share of press coverage in the recent months.

Attending the lunch on behalf of Clark Construction Group, the design/build contractor, will be Chip Hastie, Jeff Fullerton, Karri Novak and Jim McLamb.

Mr. Hastie, a Vice President of Clark, runs the day-to-day operations of the project. Mr. Fullerton, a Director with Clark affiliate Edgemoor Infrastructure and Development, works very closely with the P3 aspects of the project. Ms. Novak, the Director of Preconstruction Services for Clark, worked on all preconstruction issues and programming at the outset of the project. Finally, Mr. McLamb is the Senior Vice President of Clark and maintains the day-to-day responsibility for Clark's Southern California project operations.


Project Overview:

This new Long Beach Court Building is the first social infrastructure project in the United States procured under the principles of Performance-Based Infrastructure (PBI) contracting.  Total development cost is approximately $490 million, with design-build cost of approximately $343 million.  Under the PBI agreement, the Judicial Council of California (JCC) will own the building, and the Superior Court of Los Angeles County will occupy approximately 80% of the space. The JCC will pay Long Beach Judicial Partners (private consortium) an annual, performance-based service fee for 35 years. The PBI delivery method will leverage the private sector’s access to financing, technological expertise, and management efficiency to quickly provide a high-quality facility that will serve the Superior Court of Los Angeles County.

The Long Beach Courthouse team was organized by Meridiam Infrastructure North America, a long-term equity fund based in the United States and focused on infrastructure development. Clark Design/Build is leading the design and construction of the Courthouse with AECOM as the architect of record. Other design team members include Syska Hennessey Group, MEP Engineer of Record and Nabih Youssef Associates, Structural Engineer of Record. The team also includes Facilities Operations & Maintenance Management by Johnson Controls Inc of Milwaukee.

When complete, the five-story 545,000 square-foot building will house 31 courtrooms, as well as court administration offices, Los Angeles County lease space, and retail leasable space. The building will include below-grade secure inmate transfer facilities, detention facilities, and separate secure parking areas for judges. A five-level great room atrium enclosed on two ends by a cable-supported glass wall system will serve as the single entry point for the public and provide access to a secured central courtyard. Clad in deeply-articulated curtain wall and elements of stone, the project will span two city blocks in downtown Long Beach and replace the functionally-obsolete courthouse one block away. In addition to the new building, the project team also renovated and expanded an existing 399,000 square-foot parking structure.

Specific presentation topics will include:

• Project procurement , including unique stakeholder involvement given performance-based infrastructure delivery
• Program/design highlights, including  leasable office and retail spaces, as well as measures for future expansion of court/detention capacity within the provided envelope
• Project update, including an overview of the fast-track design-build sequence
• Case studies on the influence of Performance Based Infrastructure on the design-build process

A reminder that the lunch is on Friday, April 26th at 12:15 p.m. We look forward to seeing everyone there.