Holland & Knight Advises Corvias in $517 Million Student Housing Deal with University System of Georgia

ATLANTA (November 20, 2014) – Holland & Knight represented Corvias Group and its student housing division, Corvias Campus Living, in connection with the company’s recent award as private concessionaire for a $517 million project to develop and manage student housing for nine campuses within the University System of Georgia (USG) for 65 years. The innovative public-private-partnership (P3) deal marks the first time that a state system has initiated the privatization of student housing through a portfolio of campuses.

Phase 1 of the project will include 3,683 new beds and 6,195 existing beds totaling over 3 million square feet across nine of the USG’s 31 campuses. The USG-Corvias partnership model offers long-term financial, operational, construction and design components, creating significant benefits, including:

• Performance-based fees, which tie compensation to metrics, are awarded at the discretion of the board of regents and individual campuses to ensure alignment of interests between Corvias and the USG.
• A reinvestment account that is projected to exceed $2 billion over the life of the partnership will ensure that all facilities are left in like-new condition at the end of the 65-year program. These guaranteed funds allow each building to go through minor renovations, major renovations and full replacements five times without requiring additional capital.
• $5.6 million of up-front funding for capital repairs and renovations to take place in the first year on existing housing. This allows all residence halls to improve.
• A positive local economic impact in the state of Georgia; Corvias has already hired seven Georgia-based architecture, engineering and construction firms, and will seek additional subcontractors.

The Rhode Island-based Corvias Group is a privately-owned company that works on behalf of the U.S. military, colleges and universities, and public sector agencies to develop tailored solutions that remedy some of America’s most challenging deficiencies in infrastructure and facilities caused by chronic underinvestment.

Holland & Knight public finance partner Woody Vaughan led the team representing Corvias in the transaction. He was assisted by attorneys Tony Freedman and Bonni Kaufman in Washington, D.C., Allison Dyer and Matt Joe in Atlanta and Dustin Stevens in Orlando, Fla.

“This is the most ambitious and innovative student housing privatization project in the nation,” said Mr. Vaughan. “We created a great model for other public university systems that offers savings to the local government and taxpayers, and flexibility for schools to tailor the improvements to their individual needs.”

About Holland & Knight’s Public Finance Team: The firm's national Public Finance Team includes more than 20 attorneys who have decades of experience in all aspects of public finance issues and public private partnerships. During the past five years, the team has participated in the financing of more than $13.4 billion in principal amount of debt in connection with virtually every type of governmental issue. In 2014, Holland & Knight was ranked the as the most active bond counsel in the Southeast for all bond issues and the fifth most active bond counsel in the U.S. for competitive offerings in The Bond Buyer's mid-year rankings.