Social infrastructure P3 projects in the United States may be the next frontier for institutional investors. The pioneers on this frontier are now busy forging new paths that will make the road to success more predictable and stable for those who follow. While P3 projects for social infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, student housing, courthouses and prisons have a longer track record in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, in the United States such projects only recently have been seriously contemplated.

This new interest is partly because of the success so far of a landmark social infrastructure project: the Long Beach Courthouse. The project is the first U.S. social infrastructure P3 project to go from inception to competitive bidding process to financial close to day-to-day operations, or as Joe Aiello, director of business development, North America, for Meridiam, puts it, “from soup to nuts.” It is Meridiam’s project. The Long Beach Courthouse successf