Bond Buyer Selects Four Orrick Transactions for 2025 Deal of the Year

It’s been another year of innovating in the muni markets and at the intersection of public and private finance. Our team helped municipal clients and their financial advisors innovate to solve for energy demand, toll road improvements and critical cruise port upgrades across New York, Texas, Alaska and Georgia – earning four Bond Buyer's 2025 Deal of the Year awards.

• New York State Power Organization Deal Achieves 10% Savings for Customers: To help the state enter the prepay energy market, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) structured a first-of-its-kind tax exempt prepaid electricity financing in the State of New York that achieved triple tax exemption at the federal, state and local levels. The New York Energy Finance Development Corporation issued $944 million in energy supply revenue bonds, prepaying 30 years of electricity for NYPA. The transaction achieved 10% savings for customers with respect to the purchased power while advancing statewide climate policy objectives. Read more.
• Georgia’s First Smart Mobility P3: Public Finance Authority issued $3.4 billion in tax-exempt private activity bonds for Georgia’s new managed express lanes, the state’s first tolls featuring dynamic pricing, which adjust based on real-time traffic conditions. The Georgia SR 400 Express Lanes are designed to enhance public accessibility and stimulate local economic growth while minimizing traffic disruptions, with projected annual toll revenues of $300 million. The project’s innovative financing combined private activity bonds with the largest TIFIA loan to date, delivering a $3.8 billion upfront concession fee to the state while funding 16 miles of dynamically tolled lanes. Read more.
• Novel Risk-Transfer for Alaska Port Redevelopment. Alaska’s $2.2 billion in cruise ship tourism is a vital part of the state’s economy. To finance the building of a new cruise ship terminal and dock, the Alaska Railroad Corporation’s $112 million cruise port revenue bonds used a novel risk-transfer approach – purchasing the project with bond proceeds only after substantial completion. Goldman Sachs provided the interim construction loan to the Alaska-based private developer, to finance a portion of the $137 million construction project. Read more.
• Texas Utility Accesses Capital Markets to Fund Critical Infrastructure: To help a Texas Hill Country municipal power utility build their first power plant, BofA Securities served as senior manager on Kerrville Public Utility Board’s groundbreaking deal, which combines tax-exempt power supply revenue bonds with a low-interest Texas Energy Fund loan to deliver the utility’s first power plant. Read more.