Public Private Partnerships Cheat Sheet

as published by City Innovate Foundation

In the US, infrastructure projects have historically been funded through a combination of state and federal funds. But the next wave of infrastructure investment into our nations’ cities is likely to be financed quite differently, using a model known variously as public private partnership or PPP sometimes abbreviated P3.

Below you will find a reading list to get you quickly up to speed on this topic and how it applies to cities in the US:

Building Municipal Transportation Through Public-Private-Partnerships

• Reliable road, highway, and transit systems are essential to the growth and livability of American cities. Financing the construction and management of transportation projects is an issue of increasing concern, as resources such as the Federal Highway Trust Fund are depleted or set to expire. A variety of other, innovative funding sources exist and a promising option is the public-private-partnership.
• Currently only 23 states and Puerto Rico allow the use of PPPs for transportation projects.
• Municipal Action Guide: Public-Private-Partnerships for Transportation Projects (National League of Cities)

Notable Cases

• Las Vegas Monorail Project: first and only privately-owned public transportation system in the US
• Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program/CREATE: first state-local-private partnership aimed at massive scale improvements on road, rail, track, signal system
• South Bay Expressway

Building National Infrastructure Through Public-Private-Partnerships

• Strengthen Federalism: Establish a National PPP Unit to Support Bottom-Up Infrastructure Investment (Brookings)
• “Therefore, the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings recommends the creation of a national PPP unit to provide public and private actors with dedicated support for integrating PPP’s in the national infrastructure agenda.”
• Obama Proposes P3 Tool to Help States Finance Infrastructure (GovTech)

PPP & Economic Development / Urban Innovation Districts

• Google Shows Power of Urban Innovation Districts (Brookings)
• “The ethos is embodied in London’s Tech City district, where Google founded Campus London in 2012. Campus serves as a startup hub aimed at fostering collaboration and mentorship within a broader neighborhood known as the “Silicon Roundabout.” It is a community of roughly 22,000 members who have raised over $56 million in funding in one year.

Further Reading

All from the Brookings Institute

• PPP Projects in Virginia: The good, The Bad, and The Scrapped
• Moving Forward on Public Private Partnerships: U.S. and International Experience With PPP Units
• Private Capital, Public Good: Drivers of Successful Infrastructure Public-Private-Partnerships
• A tale of two states: Comparing PPPs in North Carolina and Ohio
• Public-private partnerships: Joining core business interests with global development
• Public Private Partnerships: A Conversation with Danish Minister for Trade and Development Cooperation Mogens Jensen

Originally published at cityinnovate.org.