STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Case Studies

Helping Chicago’s public transit agencies implement an innovative fare payment system

Public Finance

For more than 15 years, the firm has served as bond counsel to a University, aiding in the formation of a pooled system of the University’s auxiliary facilities, including parking, student housing, dining and recreational facilities. We also assisted the University when it consolidated the financing of its hospital and clinic system into the system facilities.

Thompson Coburn lawyers served as bond counsel to Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in matters involving the structuring, issuance and sale of $409,555,000 in alternate revenue bonds to build new schools and fund other capital projects.

The firm represented one of the nation’s largest transit systems, when it closed a Lease-Purchase Agreement to provide financing for the construction and purchase of 150 buses. This bus lease-purchase was the first of its kind for the agency and provided cost effective funding at tax-exempt interest rates. The firm served as special counsel to the agency in structuring and documenting the financing, and was lead counsel in drafting the lease and other financing documents. Our attorneys also offered opinions as to the legality, enforceability and tax-exempt status of the financing, as well as to the perfection of security interests in the buses and other collateral that secured the transaction.

As bond counsel for a Missouri city since 1980 Thompson Coburn has worked to structure the community's inventive bond financings that fund its mounting capital needs. 

Real Estate Development

We served as bond counsel in the financing of the I-470 and 350 Transportation Development District transaction, a project located southeast of Kansas City and consisting of an approximately 722,000-square-foot “power” retail center known as SummitWoods Crossing. The firm drafted various financing documents related to the issuance of the bonds, reviewed inter-governmental agreements pertaining to the District’s imposition of a 1% sales tax and provided opinions as to the legality, enforceability and tax-exempt status of the bonds. Tax increment financing was also utilized in connection with this project.

Crossings Community Improvement District relied on Thompson Coburn as bond and disclosure counsel when the District provided financing for infrastructure and site improvements in connection with the Wildwood Town Center redevelopment project in Wildwood, Missouri. This financing was the first in Missouri in which a transportation development district utilized all three available sources of revenue (sales tax, real property tax and special assessments) to finance the costs of public improvements within the district.

Our lawyers served as underwriter’s counsel in connection with the construction of the Lake of the Ozarks Community Bridge. This matter involved the first issuance of Toll Revenue Bonds in the State of Missouri under the Transportation Corporation Act. As advisors to the underwriters, our lawyers played a pivotal role in structuring and implementing a financial plan to fund the required project costs and provide for construction reserves and interest on the bonds during the construction and start up of the Bridge operations. The firm served in a similar capacity in connection with the issuance of refunding bonds designed to restructure the financing after the Bridge project was completed.

Condemnation/Eminent Domain

Thompson Coburn has successfully represented regional agencies in major public works and transportation projects, including the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District. The firm has worked on legal issues including eminent domain proceedings, real estate purchase and sale agreements, easement and license acquisition and negotiation, bond financing, construction and construction management agreements, environmental issues and remediation, and mechanics’ lien claims and construction disputes.

Our firm has represented developers and municipalities in a variety of TIF and Chapter 353 urban redevelopment projects, which have included property acquisitions for the Brentwood Promenade, a highly successful TIF project in St. Louis County.