Norton Rose Fulbright represented Meridiam Infrastructure and its project company, Long Beach Judicial Partners LLC, in the sale by Long Beach Judicial Partners LLC of $518.5 million of 6.88% Senior Secured Notes due December 31, 2047 into the private placement market.

The proceeds will be used to refinance the initial credit facility used to finance the design and construction of the new Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse in Long Beach, California. It is not only the first greenfield PPP project in the US to be refinanced, but it is also the first greenfield PPP project in the US to be financed or refinanced in the private placement market.

Norton Rose Fulbright has been working on the Long Beach Court Building Project since 2009 when Meridiam Infrastructure was short-listed to submit a proposal to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain a new approximately 545,000 gross square-foot court building and related facilities.

The completed facility, which opened in August 2013, includes 31 civil and criminal courtrooms, office space, retail space, a controlled-entry way, an holding facility.

The Long Beach Court Building Project has received numerous awards including:

 *  The Bond Buyer's 2011 "Deal of the Year"
 *  Project Finance magazine's "North American PPP Deal of the Year 2010"
 *  finalist for Infrastructure Journal's 2010 "Global PPP Deal of the Year"
 *  finalist for "Best Accommodation Project" and "highly commended" at PPP Bulletin's Partnerships Awards 2012

The Norton Rose Fulbright team included New York partners Mike Pikiel and Mark Tibberts, Los Angeles associate Jonathan Guz and New York associate Daniel Shapiro. Other team members included New York tax partner David Gillespie; Houston ERISA partner Stephanie Schroepfer; and Los Angeles real estate senior counsel Robert Barnes. Partners Dick Bourgeois in New York and Michael Clark in Los Angeles assisted with the required legal opinions.