- Great Hall Partners, led by Ferrovial Airports, also comprises Saunders Construction and JLC.
- The 34-year contract was signed on 24 August.
- This project is Ferrovial’s debut in the US airport market and opens up new opportunities in the area of public-private partnerships.
The Great Hall Partners consortium, led by Ferrovial Airports, has achieved financial closure of the contract for remodeling and commercial operation of the Jeppesen terminal at Denver International Airport. Financial closure comes after the signature of the contract between Denver City and County and Great Hall Partners on 24 August 2017. Ferrovial Airports, with an 80% stake, is the majority partner of the consortium, alongside Saunders Construction and JLC (an investment fund created by Loop Capital and Magic Johnson Enterprises). The construction and refurbishment work, worth a total of 650 million dollars, will be carried out by Ferrovial Agroman and Saunders Construction.
The total investment will be financed by a combination of governmental payments, equity committed by the consortium partners, and the bond issue completed yesterday. The equity provided by the consortium amounts to 73 million dollars, while the bond principal amounts to 189 million dollars. The bond was rated BBB by Fitch and BBB- by S&P. The bond has an average yield to maturity of 4.083% and is callable before maturity. The average yield to call is 3.34%.
Full upgrade of the terminal
The Great Hall project consists of upgrading the Jeppesen terminal at Denver Airport, encompassing over 70,000 square meters of floor space. The upgrades include creating new shopping and foodservice areas, relocating and expanding the TSA screening areas, improving building access and passenger flow, creating a new check-in area, and optimizing space and efficiency in the terminal.
Opened in 1995, Denver International Airport is the largest commercial airport in North America in terms of acreage and ranks sixth in terms of traffic. It is served by 25 airlines, flying 58 million passengers each year to and from over 180 destinations in the Americas, Asia and Europe.
The Great Hall project, the first contract awarded to Ferrovial Airports in the US, provides new business opportunities in public-private partnerships (P3), a space in which the company already has extensive experience through subsidiaries Cintra and Ferrovial Agroman. The number of P3 projects has expanded rapidly in the US, and is expected to continue in the coming years since this approach offers great advantages to governments wishing to execute infrastructure projects.
