Michael Melzer

/My focus

I have very broad project and public finance experience having assisted with raising over $85 billion across more than a thousand taxable and tax-exempt debt financing transactions for borrowers and projects in 29 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Washington DC. While I have experience with virtually every sector within the public finance space, my primary areas of focus include general government, public power, energy and utilities, transportation (including airports, harbors, highways, and passenger rail), education, healthcare, senior living, economic development, hotels, and sports and convention facilities.

I’ve served as bond counsel to almost every major issuer of municipal debt in the States of Hawaii and Illinois as well as counsel in varying capacities to other states and state agencies and many of the largest cities, counties, airports and airport systems, and public power authorities in the country. In addition to my traditional public finance work, I’ve worked on several of the largest and most high profile public-private partnership (P3) transactions including, but not limited to, large scale high-speed rail developments in Florida, California, and Nevada at an estimated total aggregate cost of over $15 billion; three major airport terminal development and redevelopment projects with a total aggregate cost of over $14 billion; energy-as-a-service (EaaS) and energy service company (ESCO) financings in varying fields across four states; creation and implementations of an economic development plan projected to drive over $8 billion in local development; the expansion of a privately operated managed lane tollway; a marque hotel and resort development as well as parking and sewer privatizations.

In addition to my transactional finance work I’ve also assisted with the drafting or modification of dozens of state statutes and constitutional provisions and the successful defense of IRS audits and FINRA, SEC, and SIGTARP enforcement actions.

I view the diversity of my experience across the project and public finance space as a strong asset that provides an uncommonly large knowledge base to draw upon when approaching complex challenges and enables me to deliver practical, impactful solutions.

/Looking ahead

The prolonged aftermath of the 2008 recession, an aging population and the wide-ranging fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic have created significant challenges for many tax-advantaged borrowers, which have been further exacerbated by the recent introduction of uncertainty surrounding the availability, reliability, and sufficiency of future federal funding. These disruptive events have compounded upon each other, coupling a substantial backlog of deferred but necessary capital investment while introducing significant additonal capital demands—including enhanced accessibility, and emergency and pandemic preparedness and resiliency (particularly in relation to supply chains). Further delays in addressing these critical investments risk customer or constituent flight, risking further funding impairment. Together, these represent serious, novel challenges that will likely require innovative, thoughtful financing solutions.