Public Finance

Calfee's Public Finance attorneys cover the entire range of governmental borrowings, from routine general obligation bonds and notes of local cities and villages to projects as complex and unique as the redevelopment of inner-ring suburbs, downtown hotels and parking facilities, student housing, and sports facilities and the transformation of a large public hospital.

Our public finance lawyers serve as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, disclosure counsel, issuer’s counsel, and borrower’s counsel for a wide variety of public finance transactions.

Bond Counsel Engagements

• City of Cleveland, Ohio
• City of Cincinnati, Ohio
• Treasurer of the State of Ohio
• Ohio Public Facilities Commission
• Ohio Air Quality Development Authority
• Ohio Department of Transportation
• Cuyahoga County, Ohio
• Hamilton County, Ohio
• Trumbull County, Ohio
• Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority
• Lorain County Port Authority
• Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority

Issuer’s Counsel and Disclosure Counsel

• Cuyahoga County, Ohio Water Development Authority
• MetroHealth System

Underwriters’ Counsel

• Ohio Housing Finance Agency
• University of Akron
• Treasurer of the State of Ohio
• Ohio Water Development Authority
• Cleveland Public Power
• Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
• City of Akron
• Kenyon College/Ohio Higher Education Facilities Commission
• Playhouse Square Foundation
• Columbus State College

Borrower’s Counsel

• Jewish Federation of Cleveland
• Summa Health System
• Eliza Jennings Senior Care Network
• Lake Hospital System
• University School

Representative Matters

• Served as Underwriter's counsel to a subsidiary of a publicly traded Fortune 500 investment bank in connection with a limited offering of special obligation revenue bonds issued by an East Coast infrastructure improvement district; the bonds were secured by tax increment financing payments and special assessments placed on benefited properties in the development, which will consist of multiple mixed-use buildings, a hotel, multi-family residential housing, and a marina. (2024)
• Served as Bond counsel to a nationally recognized private K-12 school in the issuance of refunding bonds. (2024)
• Served as Bond counsel to an Ohio county, assisting the client in financing various water system and building capital improvements. (2024)
• Served as Company/Borrower's counsel to a global manufacturing company headquartered in Southeastern U.S. for a tax increment financing arrangement (including the issuance of a multi-million dollar special obligation revenue bonds to finance the acquisition of the project site), a ground lease/lease transaction with an Ohio county's economic development and finance alliance, and a grant from JobsOhio to finance a large manufacturing facility to be constructed in Ohio. (2024)
• Served as Bank Counsel to a publicly traded Fortune 500 bank in providing subordinate tax-exempt and taxable line of credit facilities to Midwestern municipal airport. (2024)
• Served as Underwriter's counsel to a publicly traded Fortune 500 bank for bonds issued by a Midwestern county and secured by non-tax revenues of the county to finance a portion of a museum's renovation and expansion; the project is seen as a catalyst for additional development of the lakefront area where the museum is located. (2024)
• Served as Bond counsel to a private school with two campuses in Ohio in a tax-exempt qualified 501(c)(3), variable rate new money bond issuance to finance the construction of a new middle school and additional improvements to the school's existing middle school campus. (2024)
• Served as Bond counsel to a municipality in Ohio in the issuance of tax-exempt, new money general obligation bonds to finance street improvements, service vehicles, and a recreation center. (2024)
• Served as Bond counsel to a municipality in Ohio in income tax revenue bonds issued by the client to finance a recreational center to be integrated into a new school building to be constructed by the local school district and represented innovative financing and partnership between the city and the school district. (2023)
• Served as Placement Agent counsel to a subsidiary of a publicly traded Fortune 500 investment bank, which financed the renovation of a historical hotel in Ohio through two separate bond issuances; each bond issuance was issued through separate bond funds by two port authorities. The bond funds include multiple layers of reserves and have an investment-grade rating, which allowed the hotel to access the capital markets at a lower interest cost. The bonds were payable primarily from tax increment financing based on the anticipated increase in the value of the hotel after the completion of the renovations. (2023)
• Served as Bond counsel to an agency of the State of Ohio for taxable revenue bonds issued by the agency in a private placement; the bonds were issued as draw-down bonds to save the borrower interest expense during the construction period and were structured in a manner that allowed for the simultaneous closing of a property assessed clean energy financing (C-PACE) to complete the capital stack. These bonds provided the borrower with property tax exemptions and sales tax exemptions on construction materials, which assisted the borrower in constructing a multi-family housing project in a difficult environment of rising interest rates and elevated costs of construction materials. (2023)
• Served as University Counsel in a public-private partnership for a long-term lease and monetization of the University’s parking assets. Upfront payment for a 35-year lease was financed with the proceeds of tax-exempt bonds. Bond proceeds provided the University with an upfront payment, allowing the University to pay off existing indebtedness to alleviate budget pressures over the next few years. This was the second Ohio parking P3 that combined an issuance of tax-exempt bonds and provided the University with the possibility of receiving ongoing payments throughout the term of the transaction, depending on the success of the partnership. Calfee served in the same role for the first parking P3 that provided ongoing payments to a university in Ohio. (2023)
• Served as Bond counsel to an agency of the State of Ohio in a $50+ million bond issuance to finance a utility-scale solar park, structured in a manner that the project would be able to qualify for tax credits an an exemption from local real property taxes and sales taxes in the project. (2023)
• Served as Bond counsel to a private high school in the Midwest; "draw down" bonds were issued to finance the construction of a new academic building and capital improvements to an existing library facility and to refinance outstanding indebtedness of the school were issued to pay for various other capital improvements. (2023)
• Served as Underwriter's counsel for a publicly traded, Fortune 1000 global wealth management and investment banking firm client. The publicly offered tax-exempt bonds were issued to finance numerous capital improvements with an Ohio city and refinance outstanding bond anticipation notes issued for all capital improvements. (2023)
• Served as Bond Counsel in the issuance of $275 million of debt to finance a utility-scale solar project in a county in the Midwest.
• Served as Underwriter’s Counsel to the publicly traded, Fortune 500 global financial institution in connection with the issuance by a State Treasurer of grant anticipation revenue vehicle bonds (GARVEE).
• Served as Counsel for a public-private-partnership in connection with the monetization of $80 million in parking assets for a Midwestern U.S. university.