By: Brian Perlberg, Esq., Executive Director and Senior Counsel of ConsensusDocs
ConsensusDocs just published a new Public-Private Partnership (P3) Agreement to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain (DBFOM) between an Owner and Concessionaire. The ConsensusDocs 900 Standard P3 Agreement and General Conditions represents a vast improvement over most P3 agreements. P3 contracts typically involve complex 200-plus page contracts that obfuscate and inappropriately shift risk. The new ConsensusDocs Standard P3 Agreement provides a fair off-the-shelf solution for P3 projects that can be modified to meet specific project needs. This will significantly lower the transactional costs for small and medium sized P3 projects to both create a contract as well as assess the risk involved for pursing potential P3 projects.
According to Ernest C Brown, a San Francisco-based Construction lawyer, mediator and arbitrator, who chaired the ConsensusDocs P3 Working Group, “Rather than create a P3 agreement from scratch, the new ConsensusDocs 900 P3 Agreement provides a sophisticated and flexible contractual solution that users can modify based upon the specific needs.” P3 is an innovative contracting vehicle that offers a better mechanism to consider a projects life-cycle costs and flexibility in financing for project.” Brian Perlberg, Executive Director and Senior Counsel of ConsensusDocs adds, “P3 projects are often clouded by rampant risk shifting that ultimately hurts project outcomes. At the very least, the new ConsensusDocs P3 agreement creates a fair baseline for owners, financiers, builders, and designers alike to begin a real conversation to contract utilizing public-private partnerships.”