Across America, essential workers—from teachers to first responders—are being priced out of the communities they serve. To solve this, a new housing model is emerging that transcends the traditional playbook. Using lessons from complex institutional P3s, this vision fundamentally restructures how workforce housing is financed, delivered, and owned.

Starting the process to deliver a new building can feel daunting. There are many aspects to consider. How should the process be organized? What is the first step? And what is needed from me as the project Sponsor to ensure a successful outcome? Examining highly successful procurements can provide us answers to these questions and a ready-made path to follow.

A public-private partnership (P3) or turnkey project delivery approach allows for tailored financing solutions that meet the specific needs of infrastructure and building owners and occupants. Owners may seek off balance sheet treatment, short-term or bridge financing, and/or long-term third-party financing.

Delivering the Long Beach Court Building with a full turnkey solution (TDBFOM) allowed the transfer of significant project risks to the party best able to manage them; provided access to new, competitive sources of capital; and focused on lowest cost of occupancy over a 35-year period, rather than lowest first cost.

Turnkey delivery offers a more effective process for designing and constructing new facilities than a traditional Design-Bid-Build (DBB) procurement.

Turnkey delivery typically means the development and delivery of a facility ready-for-use by the occupants. Removing the worry or hassle from the building owner, a turnkey developer handles the responsibilities that would fall on the owner in traditional Design-Bid-Build (DBB) delivery. With turnkey delivery, all that is required by the owner/occupants is to show up and “turn the key” to use the facility once it has been delivered, hence the term “turnkey”.

Exploring evolving trends in alternative delivery strategies for public and social infrastructure projects

An availability payment is a means of compensating a private concessionaire for its responsibility to design, construct, operate, maintain, and make available a facility for a set period of time with certain performance standards and key performance criteria.