Client: Infrastructure Ontario and Ministry of the Attorney General

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Delivery Model: Public-Private Partnership: Design, Build, Finance, Maintain

Size: 690,000 sq.ft.

Value: $505 million

Project Highlights:

• 2019 National Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Public-Private Partnerships Silver Award under the Project Development category
• The NTC Project includes the first Indigenous Learning Centre in an Ontario courthouse. This space offers opportunities for the public, justice workers, and students to learn about Indigenous history and issues related to the justice system in Ontario.
• Designed to achieve LEED® Silver Certification.

EllisDon Capital Inc. (EDC) is the Developer Lead, 100% Equity Provider, and Financial Advisor on the New Toronto Courthouse (NTC) Project. During the Construction and Operations Period, EDC is responsible for ensuring that the consortium, EllisDon Infrastructure achieves all their contractual obligations required by the Project Agreement. EllisDon Capital manages the contractors, debt, vendor payments and ensures ongoing financial compliance with contractual agreements.

The Operating Phase of the NTC Project will involve facilities maintenance and lifecycle work over a 30-year term until 2052 being led by a joint venture that includes EllisDon Facilities Services Inc.

New Toronto Courthouse is one of the first high-profile Design, Build, Finance and Maintain (DBFM) P3 projects, in which EllisDon performs all roles from RFP pre-development phase to facility management.

Project Co (Ellisdon Infrastructure NTC) entered into a Project Agreement (PA) with the Contracting Authority (Infrastructure Ontario, the agent for the Ministry of Attorney General) to finance, design, construct and maintain the new courthouse facility. To build this facility Project Co entered into a construction contract with EllisDon Design Build. Service contract was executed between TCFM ((Toronto Courthouse Facilities Management), a joint venture between EllisDon Facilities Services and SNC OM) and Project Co will govern the 30 year service maintenance period. Project Co. secures and oversees required financing (loans and EllisDon equity) through EllisDon Capital to support the project during construction and service phases.

This vertically integrated approach is unique to EllisDon in the Ontario P3 industry. By linking the overall EllisDon expertise and collaboration under the leadership and governance of Project. Co, EllisDon is able to utilize efficient and innovative approaches to achieve Client objectives in a very competitive manner.

From financing to delivering energy efficient design and construction, as well as performing excellent maintenance and reporting during the services phase, the EllisDon team is able to provide a truly consolidated solution to Client needs.

The Project Co team identified that tracking of project deliverables and providing advance warning of upcoming deliverables was a key aspect of project governance and very important to the overall success of the NTC Project. The Asset Management team then went to work to create a Deliverables Tool which helps to identify deliverables from key project documents as well as provide reminders in a project calendar that can be shared with key individuals. As EllisDon is vertically integrated, the benefit of the project calendar and deliverable reminders has been shared not only within the Project Co team, but also with members of the Service Provider team (TCFM).

The previous process on past projects of tracking deliverables was very labour intensive and did not leverage technology. This newly developed tool automates some of the process and is better able to leverage technology to the benefit of compliance monitoring and better outcomes. The tool has already proven to be invaluable on the NTC Project, and will be rolled out across EllisDon’s DBFM portfolio of new projects.

Like any P3 in Ontario, the majority of Finance and Compliance requirements are geared towards the lenders for the project. EllisDon leveraged its experience in managing all of the company's P3s up to date to ensure a continued seamless experience for the lenders. What was more unique about the NTC Project was that DBFM's in Ontario began introducing Construction Period Payments (CPP) to help offset some of the financing costs to fund the project. The New Toronto Courthouse was one of the first handful of projects to have this payment mechanism and few people in the industry had experience with the process. To ensure that there would be little to no problems once the payment trigger occurred for the CPP, EllisDon Capital worked closely with the Independent Certifier at the start of the construction period to discuss the timing of the deliverables . This led to an agreement between all parties on the CPP process and a seamless transition to the payment process. The process template that was developed has since been duplicated on EllisDon's other Ontario DBFM projects.