UC Merced P3 Project

A $1.3 Billion Public-Private Campus Expansion

The University of California, Merced P3 Project demonstrates the scale and complexity that can be achieved through a public-private partnership.

Designed to accommodate UC Merced's growing student population, the project used a P3 delivery structure to design, construct, finance, operate, and maintain a major expansion of the university campus.

The project ultimately encompassed approximately 1.2 million square feet of new facilities, creating an extraordinary amount of new educational and residential infrastructure within a single coordinated development.

Building a Campus for the Future

The expansion included:

• Student housing

• Academic buildings

• Research facilities

• Campus amenities

• Renewable-energy infrastructure

Sustainability was also incorporated into the development through a substantial solar-panel installation designed to provide renewable energy to the campus.

The result was more than a collection of new buildings. It represented a coordinated expansion of the university's capacity to house, educate, and support a growing student population.

Financing a $1.3 Billion P3

The approximately $1.3 billion project combined private investment with public financing.

According to project information, financing included approximately $600 million in private equity, $600 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by the California Educational Facilities Authority, and an additional $123 million in State of California funding.

That combination illustrates one of the defining characteristics of major P3 projects: the relationships extend far beyond conventional owner-contractor construction agreements.

Design, construction, financing, long-term operations, maintenance, performance requirements, risk allocation, and public accountability may all become interconnected within the project's contractual structure.

Dispute Review Board Experience

Ernest C. Brown, Esq., P.E. served on the Dispute Review Board (DRB) for the UC Merced P3 Project.

Dispute Review Boards can play an important role on complex construction projects by providing an established mechanism for addressing disputes while the project is underway. On a project of this magnitude, timely and knowledgeable dispute resolution can help the parties address disagreements without unnecessarily disrupting construction progress.

Brown's combination of legal and engineering experience is particularly relevant to major infrastructure and P3 disputes, where contractual questions frequently intersect with highly technical construction issues.

Experience Where Construction, Engineering and Law Meet

The UC Merced P3 Project represents the kind of sophisticated project environment in which Construction Lawyers has built its practice: large-scale construction, complex delivery structures, significant financial commitments, multiple stakeholders, and technically demanding disputes.

From traditional public works to P3 developments, effective construction dispute resolution requires more than knowledge of the contract. It requires an understanding of how major projects are actually designed, financed, built, and operated.