The City Council of Long Beach, Calif., this month unanimously chose a DBFOM team led by Plenary Group to negotiate terms of a complicated real estate/P3 deal for developing a new downtown civic center, new port headquarters and related private development. To help meet the city’s affordability cap, Plenary proposes to fund the civic center, comprising a new city hall, library and park, with tax-exempt debt. The spread risk on those bonds remains with the Plenary consortium until financial close, which could occur in mid-to-late 2015, Plenary’s target, or  mid-2017, the deadline set in the RFP.