Bird Construction selected as preferred bidder for Hamilton Biosolids Project

Harbour City Solutions consortium has been selected as the preferred proponent to design, build, finance, operate and maintain, a biosolids management project for the City of Hamilton, Ontario (Canada).

The consortium is comprised of Bird Capital, Maple Reinders PPP, Synagro Technologies and Operis, which acts as financial advisor and model auditor.  Bird has a 50% interest in the construction joint venture that will design and build the project. It will also take a minority equity interest in the concession responsible for the design, construction, financing, operations and maintenance of the project.

The facility will use a thermal drying process to produce pellets which will be used as fertilizer or fuel. The plant will process up to 60,000 wet tonnes per year of biosolids over the 30-year term of the contract.

The consortium plans to reach financial close in March of this year, with construction expected to commence shortly thereafter. At this time there can be no assurances that the consortium will receive a contract award related to this project.

Mr. Ian Boyd, President and CEO of Bird, said:

"The Company is very pleased to be selected as the preferred proponent to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Hamilton Biosolids Project. We are proud of our growing portfolio of environmental projects, particularly those procured under a public private partnership format."

In August 2014, Hamilton issued a request for proposals (RFP) to hire a transaction advisor for the project​ The objective of this service was to assist the city with the development and management of the tender process for the selection and execution of the PPP agreement and to provide oversight during the construction phase of the PPP project through to successful construction completion and commissioning of the project.

In mid December 2013 the Canada P3 Fund announced it would contribute CAD$22.9 million (US$22 million) for the project.