WASHINGTON: The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authorities will launch the public-private partnership to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a new $2.1 billion bridge across the Detroit River said it has named four Canadian financial executives to serve as members of its Capital Markets Advisory Panel.
The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority is a not-for-profit Canadian Crown corporation that will manage the procurement process for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the new bridge between Windsor and Detroit through a public-private partnership. It will operate the bridge and will set and collect all tolls.
“I welcome the appointment of this financial advisory panel as the WDBA looks to maximize the benefits of the Public-Private Partnership,” said Lisa Raitt, Canada’s Transport minister. “Since it began its work six months ago, the WDBA has made great strides on the New International Trade Crossing project. Our government looks forward to further progress over the coming months.”
Last month, Canada said it will pay to build a $250 million to $300 million U.S. customs plaza on a new bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor while the U.S. government finances its operations. A Canadian public-private partnership overseeing the bridge project will pay for constructing the customs plazas on both sides of the border and the United States will staff, operate and maintain the Detroit customs plaza.
The agreement appears to remove the largest lingering hurdle for the $2.1 billion New International Trade Crossing span over the Detroit River. The publicly financed bridge is scheduled to be built two miles south of the privately owned and operated Ambassador Bridge with a scheduled finish date of 2020. As designed, the new bridge will provide direct access between Interstate 75 and Interstate 94 in Detroit and Ontario Highway 401 through a parkway in Windsor.
The crossing between Detroit and Windsor carries more than one-quarter of all merchandise trade between the two countries, currently by way of the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. The two countries estimate goods and services worth nearly $2 billion flow between the U.S. and Canada daily.
The Canadian government will be repaid for building the Detroit customs plaza through toll revenue. Then the U.S. government will need congressional approval for money to operate and staff the Detroit plaza, which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday would cost an estimated $100 million the first year and $50 million annually afterward.
As the authority moves forward with the New International Trade Crossing, it is reviewing financing and strategic opportunities available in the current Public-Private Partnership marketplace. The new Capital Markets Advisory Panel has been established by the WDBA’s Board of Directors to provide independent counsel to the board relating to the financing strategy.
“We are grateful that these seasoned professionals have agreed to help us ensure that the WDBA will ultimately structure and deliver an effective financing strategy for the benefit of both the people and economy of Canada,” said Mark McQueen, chairman of the WDBA Board of Directors. “With the assistance of our professional advisory team, these four independent experts will work with us to ensure that no stone is unturned as we undertake this multi-billion dollar project.”
The panel members include Donald Wright, the chairman of the panel who is a former chairman and CEO of TD Securities Inc. and deputy chairman of TD Bank Financial. Also on the panel are Dominic D’Alessandro, a former president and CEO of Manulife Financial Corp.; Sheryl Kennedy, who is CEO of Promontory Financial Group Canada and a former deputy governor of the Bank of Canada from 1994 to 2008; and Richard J. Kostoff, founder and chairman of Temple Rock Holdings Inc.
Also last month, the U.S. Supreme Court said it will not review an appeals court decision concerning the siting of a new Detroit-Windsor bridge, removing another hurdle to the publicly financed span’s scheduled completion in five years.
