The Bond Purchaser names 2025 Deal of the 12 months honorees

The Bond Purchaser introduced the recipients of its annual Deal of the 12 months awards, marking the twenty fourth 12 months it has acknowledged excellent achievement in municipal finance.

Winners have been named in 10 classes: one in every of The Bond Purchaser’s 5 regional areas of protection together with 5 in extra classes. All award winners can be honored at a ceremony at Guastavino’s in New York Metropolis on Dec. 2 and are additionally finalists for the nationwide Deal of the 12 months award, which can be introduced on the shut of the gala.

The Bond Purchaser’s editorial board thought of a spread of things when judging entries, together with: creativity, the flexibility to tug a posh transaction collectively underneath difficult circumstances, the flexibility to function a mannequin for different financings, and the general public goal for which a deal’s proceeds had been used.

“This 12 months’s honorees replicate the total breadth of what municipal finance can ship — from first-of-their-kind buildings and record-setting transactions to smaller however high-impact offers assembly pressing native wants,” stated Mike Scarchilli, editor in chief of The Bond Purchaser. “Collectively they showcase the ingenuity, self-discipline, and public-purpose focus that transfer communities ahead, even amid difficult markets.”

Listed below are the 2025 Deal of the 12 months award winners:

SOUTHWEST REGION
The Southwest Area winner is the cities of Dallas and Fort Value, Texas, and Dallas Fort Value Worldwide Airport for its $1.97 billion joint income refunding and enchancment bonds. By pairing lengthy fixed-rate debt with four- and seven-year mandatory-tender bonds, DFW decreased near-term borrowing prices and prevented exterior liquidity via a soft-put design.

MIDWEST REGION
The winner within the Midwest Area is the Columbus Regional Airport Authority’s roughly $1.21 billion issuance of AMT and non-AMT airport income bonds, the inaugural issuance for a $2 billion capital program at John Glenn Columbus Worldwide. The transaction generated $4.11 billion in orders from 88 buyers, increasing demand for AMT paper and permitting the authority to advance $175 million of extra initiatives. 

NORTHEAST REGION
The Northeast Area winner is the New York Vitality Finance Growth Company’s $944.15 million power provide income bonds, which pay as you go 30 years of electrical energy for the New York Energy Authority in what was the primary tax-exempt pay as you go electrical energy transaction in New York. The deal created a brand new statewide conduit credit score and offered a repeatable platform to combine renewables in assist of New York’s local weather targets.

SOUTHEAST REGION
The winner within the Southeast Area is the Virginia Port Authority for its first port income bond concern since 2016. This $248.7 million financing enabled a first-of-its-kind lease modification at Virginia Worldwide Gateway, which secured a fixed-price choice to buy the terminal in 2065, funded a $335 million upfront lease fee and defeased all excellent port income bonds and tools leases whereas avoiding an 8% ticking price. 

FAR WEST REGION
The Far West Area winner is the Alaska Railroad Company’s $112 million issuance of cruise port income bonds, which financed a brand new terminal and dock on the Port of Seward utilizing a novel risk-transfer method — buying the undertaking with bond proceeds solely after substantial completion, backed by ARRC fairness and a pier utilization settlement with minimal passenger ensures.

—

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FINANCING
The winner within the Public-Personal Partnership class is the Georgia SR 400 Categorical Lanes Venture, which mixed a file issuance of tax-exempt private-activity bonds, the most important TIFIA mortgage to this point, and a 50-year concession that delivered a $3.8 billion upfront concession price to the state whereas funding 16 miles of dynamically tolled lanes and future bus speedy transit enhancements — harnessing personal capital to speed up supply, scale back public value, and enhance mobility and security throughout metro Atlanta.

GREEN FINANCING
The Inexperienced Financing winner is the New York Transportation Growth Company’s $1.95 billion inexperienced bond issuance for the JFK Worldwide Airport Terminal 6 redevelopment. The financing advances a high-efficiency terminal program that includes rooftop photo voltaic, totally electrical floor assist, and stormwater seize and reuse and drew robust multi-segment investor demand that allowed the providing to upsize. 

INNOVATIVE FINANCING
The State of Wisconsin’s $454.3 million common obligation refunding is the Progressive Financing award winner for pioneering the municipal market’s first fixed-spread tender for tax-exempt bonds. By changing the normal fixed-price method, Wisconsin decreased publicity to interest-rate volatility for each issuer and bondholders and established a repeatable mannequin for legal responsibility administration that many issuers can undertake to unlock financial financial savings whereas broadening investor engagement.

HEALTH CARE FINANCING
The winner within the Well being Care Financing class is Sage Memorial Hospital for its $80 million providing of unrated tax-exempt bonds that recapitalized development of a substitute hospital, an expanded outpatient clinic and badly wanted workforce housing serving the Navajo group in Ganado, Arizona. Crucially, the workforce leveraged Sage’s standing as a tribal contractor to pledge non-traditional income agreements alongside web affected person revenues — opening a replicable path to marketplace for indigenous well being methods.

SMALL ISSUER FINANCING
The Small Issuer Financing winner is the Kerrville Public Utility Board Public Facility Company, which entered the general public markets with its inaugural bond sale to ship a brand new peaking energy plant for the Texas Hill Nation. The financing pairs tax-exempt bonds with a low-interest mortgage from the Texas Vitality Fund, bringing contemporary capital to a vital, historically hard-to-fund want: native reliability.

***

Additionally, for the sixteenth 12 months, the Deal of the 12 months occasion can even embody the presentation of the Freda Johnson Awards for Trailblazing Ladies in Public Finance. This 12 months marks the eleventh by which the group is honoring two public finance professionals: one from the general public sector and one from the personal.

The 2025 honorees are:

• PUBLIC SECTOR: Jeanette W. Weldon, govt director, Connecticut Well being and Instructional Amenities Authority
• PRIVATE SECTOR: Elaine Brennan, president and govt director of the general public finance division, Roosevelt & Cross

Together with Weldon and Brennan, whose awards can be introduced by Freda Johnson, 12 different honorees from the private and non-private sectors can be acknowledged as Trailblazing Ladies in Public Finance by the Northeast Ladies in Public Finance on the Dec. 2 gala.

The general public-sector Trailblazers are:

• Sherien N. Khella, treasurer, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
• Jill Jaworski, chief monetary officer, Metropolis of Chicago
• Laura Farmer, chief monetary officer, Virginia Division of Transportation
• Lisa Eisenberg, director of debt administration, State of Ohio
• Sanna Wong-Chen, affiliate director, New York Metropolis Workplace of Administration and Finances 
• Meghan Gutekunst, affiliate vp, College of California workplace of the president

The private-sector Trailblazers are:

• Julie Burger, managing director and co-head of public finance, Wells Fargo
• Nora Wittstruck, chief analytical officer, governments, S&P International Scores
• Pepe Finn, chair and CEO, Stern Brothers & Co
• Cathy Krawitz, head of municipal credit score, Northwestern Mutual
• Kelly Hutchinson, companion, authorities and public finance, Katten
• Linda Vanderperre, managing director, Kroll Bond Score Company