Geoffrey S. Yarema - Partner

Geoffrey S. Yarema, Chair of Nossaman's Infrastructure Practice Group, is a nationally recognized leader in infrastructure development and finance. He has helped pioneer innovative procurement, contracting, and financing structures for large public works projects and has proven himself an essential advisor to public agencies seeking to make effective use of innovative forms of contracts including: design-build, design-build-operate-maintain (DBOM), toll concession, availability payment, and pre-development.

With three decades of experience in the field, Mr. Yarema has been sought out by more than 25 U.S. state departments of transportation and regional transportation agencies, frequently called upon to act as Special Assistant Attorney General on groundbreaking infrastructure projects throughout North America.

Mr. Yarema's work and prominence in the industry have been widely recognized and honored. He served as a key commissioner, appointed by former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, to the Congressionally mandated National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, which released its final report in 2009. In 2008, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association named Mr. Yarema as the private sector individual who had contributed most significantly, over the last 20 years, to public/private partnerships in the U.S. transportation sector. Public Works magazine named him a "2007 Trendsetter" and California Lawyer magazine ranked him among the top 25 attorneys in 2000.

Representative Work

Texas Department of Transportation. Serving as Special Counsel on the largest PPP program in U.S. history; structuring procurement and contract documents, negotiating concession agreements, and structuring innovative financing arrangements (including applications to the US Department of Transportation's TIFIA credit assistance program and securing the largest TIFIA loan commitment to date) for a pipeline of projects worth more than $8 billion. Current projects include:

• State Highway 130, Segments 5&6. Served as legal advisor on the negotiation of a public-private partnership to design, build, finance and operate a 41-mile toll road between San Antonio and Austin. The SH 130 Concession Company, LLC (a consortium of Cintra and Zachry) is developing the project under a 50-year comprehensive development agreement, the first toll concession agreement in Texas history and only the third financed in the United States in the last 10 years. The project reached financial close on March 6, 2008 with a total project value of $1.36 billion. The firm continues to assist with the administration of the concession agreement.
• North Tarrant Express (IH 820/SH 183) Project. Serving as legal advisor on the procurement of a public-private partnership to design, build, finance and operate managed lanes and upgrade existing facilities along a 36-mile corridor in Dallas and Tarrant counties. The first segment will be developed through a toll concession agreement. Federal credit assistance in the form of a conditional TIFIA loan commitment and reservation of funding, and an allocation of private activity bonds has been secured. A pre-development agreement will cover the potential development of additional segments. Construction costs for the entire project are estimated at more than $2 billion.
• IH 635 Managed Lanes Project. Serving as legal advisor on the procurement of a public-private partnership to design, build, finance and operate a managed lanes project in Dallas. The 25-mile project includes the construction of new managed lanes and improvement of existing facilities, with expected capital costs of $1.3 billion. Federal credit assistance in the form of a conditional TIFIA loan commitment and reservation of funding, and an allocation of private activity bonds has been secured. The project is the first to be accepted into the FHWA Express Lanes Demonstration Program.
• I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor. Serving as legal advisor on the procurement of a public-private partnership to develop improved highway and rail facilities along a corridor from Northeast Texas to the border with Mexico at Laredo and/or the Rio Grande Valley, with a possible connection to the Texas Gulf Coast. Zachry American/ ACS 69 Partners LLC has been selected as the preferred bidder to work with TxDOT, regional agencies and other private parties to develop the corridor in phases through a pre-development agreement.
• DFW Connector. Serving as legal advisor on the procurement of a design-build contract to develop a 16.2-mile managed lanes project with five interchanges across seven highways in the Dallas / Fort Worth area at an estimated project cost of $762 million.

Virginia Department of Transportation. Serving as Special Assistant Attorney General assisting with the implementation of its Public-Private Transportation Act, including: negotiating a comprehensive agreement for the $323 million, 9-mile Pocahontas Parkway and James River Bridge Crossing; and advising on its latest procurement for U.S. Route 460, a 55-mile toll project.

Mississippi Department of Transportation – Airport Parkway. Serving as PPP advisor for the procurement and financing of the first toll project authorized by state legislation, a 12-mile new toll road that includes a major new bridge.

California, Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation – Alternative Fuels Corridor. Advising three departments jointly on authorization, including obtaining the necessary approvals from the Federal Highways Administration, development and implementation of an alternative fuels corridor along interstate 5 from Baja California to British Columbia.

Nevada Department of Transportation – PPP Program. Serving as legal advisor to the Department on the Pioneer Program, its PPP program which is currently in a start-up phase. The program's first project, referred to as the Demonstration Project, involves the potential concession of a 19-mile managed/HOT lanes project aimed at alleviating congestion on the most traveled freeways in the Las Vegas. Advising on project/program legislation and procurement strategy, structure, and implementation.

British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Partnerships British Columbia – Sea-to-Sky Highway Improvement Project. Key advisor on the procurement and award of an availability payment contract to reconstruct the 110-kilometer, CDN$600 million highway critical to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Washington State Department of Transportation – Tacoma Narrows Bridge Span. Served as Special Assistant Attorney General, negotiating a PPP to develop a new $840 million bridge span over Puget Sound, the first major suspension bridge in the United States in 30 years, using the state's first major design-build transportation contract.

MGM MIRAGE and Park Place Entertainment – Las Vegas Monorail. Served as lead counsel to a joint venture of the then two largest gaming companies in the world on the development, finance and operation of the first fully-privatized, urban-grade rail system in the United States. The innovative $650 million financing for the fixed guideway monorail through the Las Vegas Strip Corridor, included three tiers of tax-exempt bonds, a single purpose nonprofit corporation and $120 million in private right of way and service dedications.

New Jersey Transit Corporation – Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System. Assisted in the preparation of enabling legislation, request for proposals, analysis of applicable federal requirements, drafting of contract documents, support for contract administration and assistance with innovative finance arrangements for the $1.9 billion light rail transit system, the state's largest public works project and the first DBOM transit contract in the United States.

Oregon Department of Transportation. Served as Special Assistant Attorney General, helping develop and implement Oregon's Innovative Partherships program, advising on procuring and negotiating the state's first predevelopment PPP agreement for three projects; the 13-mile Sunrise Project, the 11-mile Newberg-Dundee Transportation Improvement Project and the 10-mile South I-205 Project.

Supervising a Practice Group Advising on the Following:

• Colorado Department of Transportation and Denver Regional Transportation District – Transportation Expansion Project (T-REX)
• Florida Department of Transportation – I-595 Corridor Improvements Project, Port of Miami Tunnel
• Georgia Department of Transportation – Public-Private Initiatives Program
• Idaho Department of Transportation – Connecting Idaho
• Minnesota Department of Transportation – Design-Build Program, Interstate 494 and I-35W St. Anthony Falls Bridge Design-Build Projects, Hiawatha LRT New Starts Project, and Trunk Highway 212 Design-Build project.
• Nevada Department of Transportation – I-15 North, Design-Build Project
• New York Department of Transportation – Design-Build Program
• Utah Department of Transportation – Interstate 15 Reconstruction, Region Three Design Build Program Management for Tolling and PPP Program
• Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority – Mid-Corridor Design-Build Project
• Alaska Department of Transportation Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority – Knik Arm Crossing
• Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority – Orange Line
• North Carolina Turnpike Authority – Triangle Expressway and Mid-Currituck Bridge
• Orange County Transportation Authority – State Route 22 Reconstruction and Widening, State Route 91
• Orange County Transportation Corridors Agency – San Joaquin Hills, Eastern, Foothill North and Foothill South toll roads
• Metro Gold Line Construction Authority – Light Rail Project
• City of Reno – Reno Transportation Rail Access Corridor Project
• Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation – Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project

Professional Affiliations

Presentations

Speaker, "The Future of US Transportation Financing," US P3 Infrastructure Finance Forum 2009, New York, NY, June 18, 2009.

Speaker, "Report from the Surface Transportation Infrastructure Finance Commission" and "Funding and Financing Transportation Infrastructure: The Future Role," Transportation Research Board 88^th Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 11-12, 2009.

Speaker, "Owner Led P3 Model," Construction Industry Round Table (CIRT) Fall Conference, Santa Barbara, CA, November 12, 2008.

Speaker, "Funding and Financing Transportation Infrastructure: The Future Role," Transportation Research Board 47th Annual Workshop on Transportation Law, San Diego, CA, July 7, 2008.

Speaker, "Vision: Funding As It Could Be," Third Annual Texas Transportation Forum, Austin, TX, April 20, 2008.

Speaker, "A perspective from the National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, Roundtable Discussion and Feedback Forum," TRB's 87^th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 13, 2008.

Speaker, "Public-Private Partnerships," Los Angeles County Transportation Funding Collaborative Conference, Los Angeles, CA, January 10, 2008.

Speaker, "Renewing California's Infrastructure: Finding a Way Forward, Enabling Legislation in California," Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, October 26, 2007.

Speaker, "Public Private Partnerships: Decisions on Ownership and Project Delivery," Oklahoma House Transportation Interim Study. Oklahoma, City, Oklahoma, September 18, 2007.

Speaker, "How PPPs Can Create Project Efficiencies," Third National TRB Conference on Performance Measurement, Irvine, CA, September 12, 2007.

Presenter, "Comprehensive Development Agreements in Texas," Texas Transportation Forum, Austin, Texas, July 20, 2007.

Speaker, California State Senate Transportation and Housing Committee hearing on Tolls, User Fees and Public-Private Partnerships: The Future of Transportation Finance, Sacramento, CA, January 17, 2007.

Speaker, "State DOT Considerations in Concession Decisions," AASHTO Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, October 29, 2006.

Speaker, "Public-Private Partnerships: Public Sponsor Decisions on Ownership and Project Delivery," Western ASHTO 2006 Annual Conference, Honolulu, HI, August 30, 2006.

Keynote Speaker, "Market Overview: How is the US P3 Toll Road Market Developing and Thoughts on Issues Facing the Market," U.S. PPP Forum, New York, NY, June 6, 2006.

Speaker, "Strategic Growth: Building Infrastructure Through Public-Private Partnerships," Presentation to Governor Schwarzenegger's Council of Economic Advisors, Sacramento, CA, February 2, 2006.

Speaker, "Capturing Equity Value Through PPP Procurements" and "Recent Trends and Innovations," TRB 85th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 23, 2006.

Speaker, "Projects of the Year" and "PPP Initiatives at the Federal and State Levels," 17th Annual ARTBA Conference on Public-Private Ventures in Transportation, Washington, D.C., October 7, 2005.

Speaker, "Concessions: A New Frontier?," TRB 44th Annual Workshop on Transportation Law, Portland, Oregon, July 18, 2005.

Speaker, "An Institutional Framework for Project Finance," AASHTO Project Finance Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, July 7, 2005.

Speaker, "Let's Make a Deal," TRB 84th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 11, 2005.

Lecturer, "Assembling a Plan of Finance: Legal and Institutional Framework," AASHTO Project Finance Institute, Park City, Utah, July 22, 2004.

Speaker, "Risk Allocation and Performance Outcomes in Highway Procurements: A Comparison of the UK and US Experience," Owner's International Construction Superconference, London, England, May 18, 2004.

Speaker, "TEA-21 Reauthorization: Beneficial Innovative Contracting and Financing Provisions," Texas Congressional Delegation, August 8, 2003.

Keynote Paper Presenter, "Meeting the TEA-21 Reauthorization Challenge: Will System Performance Continue to be Gone with the Wind?", TRB's 3rd National Conference on Transportation Finance, Chicago, Illinois, October 2002.

Publications

Co-Author, "Paying Our Way: A New Framework for Transportation Finance" Report of the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, Released February 26, 2009.

Co-Author (with Barney Allison), "National Infrastructure Reinvestment Corporation: A Proposed Refinement of the "Bank" Concept to Optimize Economic Benefits and Leverage Federal Investment," Public Works Financing, December 2008.

Co-Author (with Brian Papernik), "Public-Private Partnerships: Recent Developments in the U.S. Transportation Sector," Privatisation & Public Private Partnership Review 2007/08 (Euromoney Yearbooks), July 2007.

Co-Author (with Fred Kessler), "Public-Private Partnerships: A Sea Change in the U.S. Transportation Sector," Privatisation & Public Private Partnership Review 2006/07 (Euromoney Yearbooks), July 2006.

Education

J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1978
Articles Editor, Virginia Journal of International Law
Recipient, Hardy Cross Dillard Prize on International Law

B.S., University of Florida, 1975
Phi Beta Kappa (Environmental Sciences)

Admitted