Articles Tagged: P3

Just weeks before the University of Iowa was set to go to trial over a dispute with its private utilities operator — who sued the campus in 2023, just three years into a $1.165 billion 50-year contract — the two sides have reached a settlement.

Nearly half of $15 million the University of Iowa has withdrawn for the upcoming budget year from a $1 billion P3-related endowment fund – created for and committed to supporting the UI strategic plan and its core teaching, research, and scholarship missions – will go toward faculty compensation and a $10 million renovation of its Performing Arts Annex.

Continuing a change enacted last year in how the University of Iowa doles out income generated through a “Strategic Initiatives Fund” – created by way of its $1.165 billion public-private utilities partnership four years ago – administrators said they’ll reserve nearly $8 million for distribution on a rolling basis over the coming year “to address emerging needs and opportunities as they arise.”

Five years after buying its community’s 80-year-old student bookstore for $2.4 million, the University of Northern Iowa wants to partner with a private chain to operate it – following in the footsteps of the University of Iowa.

The day before the University of Iowa’s new private utilities partner sued the campus, accusing it of breaching obligations, the university – again – had accused the partner in writing of failing to meet performance standards, demanding it pay another $5 million for the shortcomings.

Nearly four years into a 50-year $1.165 billion public-private partnership for the operation of its utilities system, the University of Iowa is continuing to massage its process for distributing proceeds from the massive deal across campus.

On the same day University of Iowa officials asked a federal judge to dismiss a January lawsuit in which its new private utilities partner accused UI of shirking obligations just three years into their 50-year $1.165 billion deal, the university filed its own counter lawsuit against the utilities partner.

In its push to become coal-free by 2025 – or sooner – by adding more “green” to its energy palette, the University of Iowa is considering a second utilities-related public-private partnership, this one for the production of renewable fuel pellets to help power its sprawling campus.

Through the end of September, the University of Iowa had withdrawn nearly $41 million from an endowment fund it created in 2020 with $985.9 million the campus received as part of a public-private partnership for the operation of its sprawling utilities system.

Just three years into the University of Iowa’s landmark 50-year deal for the private operation of its utility system, cracks are emerging in the $1.165 billion agreement through a lawsuit the private operator filed last week accusing UI of “breaching its obligations.”

Since putting into an endowment $985.9 million of the $1.165 billion it received in an upfront payment as part of a 50-year deal to let a private collaborative operate its utilities system, the University of Iowa’s P3 investment fund has increased $139.9 million, officials told The Gazette.

Near the end of the first full budget year since the University of Iowa initiated a $1.165 billion public-private partnership to operate its utilities system, campus administrators have identified seven projects to receive a total $12 million in funding from the partnership-enabled endowment.