Following the passage of Colorado’s expanded public-private partnership law, the state’s public entities may now enter into P3 agreements.
JDSupra explained the difference that the Colorado’s expanded P3 law will bring:
Under the P3 project delivery method, a public entity enters into a long-term arrangement for a private company to design, construct, finance, operate and maintain a public asset. P3s involve the transfer of the public asset to the private company, at which point the private company finances the project, designs and constructs the project, operates and maintains the asset for a set period of time, and then hands it back to the public sector. In return, the private company may receive the right to fees generated by the public project, periodic payments based on project milestones or performance metrics, or other funding sources to support the initial improvements. One of the primary benefits of the P3 project delivery method is that it transfers much of the project risk to the private sector. What’s more, as noted in SB22-130, P3s have a proven history of better allowing public projects to be completed on time and at a lower cost than the traditional design-bid-build project delivery method.
The new Colorado P3 law sheds light on the type of projects that may take advantage of the new enabling legislation, as it notes Colorado will seek to use the P3 project delivery method to address its most “pressing and foundational needs, such as increased behavioral health capacity, broadband deployment, affordable housing development, and child care services.”
