Infrastructure and Construction

Our Infrastructure and Construction specialists have advised on the majority of high-profile privately delivered transport infrastructure in Ireland over the past two decades.

The team is well positioned to bring its experience to the new wave of investment in public transport (especially rail), strategic ports, airports and major arterial roads to deliver Ireland’s balanced sustainability and economic objectives.  Our colleagues are already advising upon some of the major Project Ireland 2040 transport infrastructure projects which reflect the Irish Government’s new 2:1 spending ratio between public transport and roads infrastructure.

Our experience includes advising:

• Bremore Ireland Port on the development of a new deepwater multi-model port north of Dublin to serve amongst other things as an offshore wind O&M support facility.
• Real Assets Investment Management on the acquisition and financing of the operational N25 Waterford Bypass PPP demand risk toll road.
• Iridium and its affiliate Dragados on all of their PPP infrastructure developments (both under construction and operational) in Ireland (including the N25 Waterford Bypass PPP, N25 New Ross Bypass PPP, M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy PPP and M7 / M8 PPP) and upcoming National Development Plan projects.
• A multinational fuel company on its stake in a motorway service areas PPP.
• Exolum Aviation on all legal aspects of its services concession to design, build and operate fuel storage and distribution infrastructure at Dublin Airport, from concession negotiation through construction and operations, along with its provision of services at Shannon Airport.
• The largest Chinese rolling stock manufacturer on its bid for the DART Expansion, the most significant single heavy rail rolling stock procurement ever undertaken in Ireland.
• A leading manufacturer of railway rolling stock on its bid for the overhaul and re-power of all Irish Rail Class 201 locomotives.
• Go-Ahead Group plc on its successful tender to operate orbital bus routes in Dublin.  This project was the first private sector bus route tender to be brought to market by Ireland’s National Transport Authority.

Our Infrastructure and Construction team brings together expertise in construction, procurement, real estate, infrastructure, disputes and finance disciplines to help clients bring all aspects of large-scale mixed use developments to fruition.

Our experience includes advising:

• Ballymore-Oxley on all legal aspects of their development of Dublin Landings and Connolly Quarter (both high density urban core residential, commercial and retail with capex circa €300 million).
• Acting on behalf of US developer in relation to a residential, retail and hotel / student accommodation development in Dublin (capex of €1 billion).
• Hines on all legal aspects of its development of a new town at Cherrywood in Dublin (to include transport and utility infrastructure, residential, commercial and retail elements) as well as Hines’ other mixed use high density developments in Dublin.
• The sponsor in relation to all aspects of the Greystones Harbour PPP project, including the development of a new harbour and marina coupled with commercial and residential development.
• A lender on the Charlemont Street Housing and Mixed Use Development.

The private sector plays a vital role in financing, building and operating critical social infrastructure across Ireland, including social housing, nursing homes, primary care centres and education facilities.

Our Infrastructure and Construction team has the depth of experience to advise private sector stakeholders on bespoke legal solutions to the key risks that typically arise on social infrastructure developments.

Our experience includes advising:

• Plenary Europe as sponsor on its bid for the Irish Social Housing PPP – Bundle Three.
• JJ Rhatigan & Company on its successful bid (and preferred bidder negotiations) with Macquarie Capital for the Higher Education PPP – Bundle One to design, finance, build, operate and maintain new educational facilities at six higher level education campuses across Ireland.
• A construction joint venture on its bid for the €150 million Community Nursing Units PPP.
• An Asian financial institution on its potential participation in the Social Housing Bundle 2 PPP project, including in relation to complex financial participation matters.
• Lenders to the Eriugena consortium on the financing and construction of the DIT Grangegorman East and Central Quads PPP project.
• The FM provider to the successful bidder for the Primary Care Centres PPP, Ireland’s first primary healthcare PPP.
• Lenders and sponsors on Schools Bundle PPPs 1, 2, 4 and 5 (including on-going operational advice).
• A lender on the Charlemont Street Housing PPP.

Digital infrastructure and telecommunications remains a resilient and high growth practice area for our Infrastructure and Construction colleagues, who have most recently advised on fibre rollouts, tower portfolio developments and acquisitions, data centres (including data centre power procurement) and wholesale high capacity telecoms operations.

See Telecommunications and Data Centres for more details.

Our experience includes advising:

• Cellnex SA on the sale of its Irish telecoms towers business (with almost 2,000 sites) in a transaction worth just under €1 billion.
• Lenders and funds on their financing and acquisition of Irish operational and under construction hyperscale / colo data centres including in relation to development and regulatory matters.
• Asterion on its acquisition of 80% of the National Broadband Plan project, a €3 billion State intervention to deliver high speed broadband (primarily by FTTH) to all underserved homes and business in Ireland, along with on-going advice on the operation and roll-out of the National Broadband Plan.
• EirGrid on its partnership arrangements with French transmission system operator RTE for the development and operation of the Celtic Interconnector between Ireland and France.
• The John Laing, SSE and e|net consortium (later Granahan McCourt) on all legal aspects of its successful bid for the National Broadband Plan.
• A multinational telecoms tower owner and operator on its bid for an extensive portfolio of eir towers (with associated services agreements).
• A number of the world’s largest technology companies on the development and construction of their Irish data centres.
• A number of investors and lenders in relation to data centre investments.
• e|net on its provision of infrastructure services and access for the National Broadband Plan and its provision of wholesale telecommunications services to its retail service provider customers pursuant to its Metropolitan Area Networks concession with the Irish Government (including advising upon its original successful bid for that concession).
• A North American data centre developer and operator together with its Irish development partner on the permitting, development, potential financing and operation of a speculative data centre complex in Dublin.
• American multinational company Equinix, who specializes in internet connection and related services, on the expansion of its existing portfolio of data centres in Dublin.
• A number of large multinational technology companies and renewable energy developers in relation to the drafting and negotiation of corporate power purchase agreements (including the first to be announced in the Irish market) and on renewable energy procurement strategies, trading structures and agreements.

The Irish PPP market remains particularly active and the Irish authorities strongly support the use of PPP structures for the delivery of critical infrastructure across all sectors, particularly transport and social infrastructure (housing, healthcare and education).

Our Infrastructure and Construction team has advised on the vast majority of significant PPP transactions since the model was first used in Ireland almost twenty years ago, allowing them to add significant value for clients by identifying and mitigating key legal risks (as well as suggesting legal mitigations for commercial risks) for these complex long term multi-party projects.

Our experience includes advising:

• JJ Rhatigan on all legal aspects of its successful bid with Macquarie and Sodexo for the Higher Education Bundle 1 PPP
• Real Assets Investment Management on the acquisition and financing of the operational N25 Waterford Bypass PPP demand risk toll road.
• A construction joint venture on its bid for the €150 million Community Nursing Units PPP.
• Iridium and its affiliate Dragados on all of their PPP infrastructure developments (both under construction and operational) in Ireland (including the N25 Waterford Bypass PPP, N25 New Ross Bypass PPP, M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy PPP and M7 / M8 PPP) and upcoming National Development Plan projects.
• An East Asian financial institution on its potential participation in the Social Housing Bundle 2 PPP project, including in relation to complex financial participation matters.
• A multinational fuel company on its stake in a motorway service areas PPP.
• Lenders to the Eriugena consortium on the financing and construction of the DIT Grangegorman East and Central Quads PPP project.
• The sponsor in relation to all aspects of the Greystones Harbour PPP project, including the development of a new harbour and marina coupled with commercial and residential development.
• Lenders and sponsors on Schools Bundle PPPs 1, 2, 4 and 5 (including on-going operational advice).
• A lender on the Charlemont Street Housing and Mixed Use Development PPP.

Our experience includes advising:

• Workday on its EMEA HQ letting and fit-out works for the largest single-office leasing transaction in the European market in recent years.
• An American biopharmaceutical company on the construction aspects of an agreement for lease of a new office building and the subsequent fit out of space in Blanchardstown (approx. 61,820 square feet) (capex €32 million).
• An American software company on the construction aspects of an agreement for lease of a new office building and the subsequent fit out of space in Dublin 1 (approx. 61,820 square feet) (capex €27 million).
• A global pharmaceutical company in relation to the acquisition and fit out of its premises in Sligo, and the re-development of an existing facility in Sligo (capex €120 million).
• A leading Dublin university on the development of a new business innovation centre (capex €1 billion).
• One of the largest global e-commerce and cloud computing companies on the acquisition of a 178,000 sq ft prime city centre location office and 31,500 sq ft temporary office space from a shared work space provider (capex €243 million).
• A biopharmaceutical company in the lease of the highly sought after rental space in Dublin’s city centre (approx. 61,820 square feet) (capex €77 million).
• A global financial services provider on the acquisition and fit out of a 12,000 sq metres office building in Dublin’s south docks development on a forward funding arrangement (capex €125 million).

Matheson’s Infrastructure and Construction specialists have played a major part in Ireland’s recent surge in projects with climate action and sustainability objectives.

The Irish Government’s Climate Action Plan and Project 2040 infrastructure plans prioritise investment and policy support in projects with long term environmental benefits. Our team helps the private sector to play its part.   Some selected recent experience highlights are below (see  Energy, Natural Resources and Utilities for more detailed information).

Our experience includes advising:

• An international energy company on its bid for a majority stake in the Simple Blue floating offshore wind platform, an international multi-GW FOW development pipeline.
• Project shareholders, project companies / sponsors and contractors on offshore wind farms in Phase 1, Phase 2 and the ‘future framework’ of the Irish offshore wind regulatory regime on the regulation, financing and development of their offshore wind farms (including joint venture formation and corporate transactions).
• GLIL Infrastructure on its acquisition of the 453MW Rathcool Portfolio of 11 Irish onshore wind farms in the largest ever Irish onshore wind farm acquisition transaction by enterprise value (including detailed project contract due diligence and transaction document mitigations).
• Lenders to Ib Vogt / Highfield on their development and financing of four Irish solar parks (Rathnaskilloge and Gaskinstown) with a combined generating capacity of over 200MWp.
• The Department of Environment, Climate and Communications on all aspects of the decommissioning of the Kinsale Head and Seven Heads offshore gas fields.
• Hanwha Energy Corporation and its local Irish partner on the development of a 200MW Battery Energy Storage System project in the mid-west region of Ireland (this is the one of the largest projects of its kind in Europe and is required to facilitate a higher share of renewable electricity generation on Ireland’s grid).
• The Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, on the drafting of the RESS Terms & Conditions (providing a unique legal adviser insight into the fundamental design and operation of RESS, Ireland’s renewable electricity subsidy scheme).
• An investor in relation to a proposed 500MW electricity interconnector between Ireland and Wales.
• Statkraft on its acquisition of a large battery energy storage project.
• ING Bank, Hamburg Commercial Bank, Rabobank, Aviva Investors and other domestic and international lenders / investors on their due diligence and financing of over 1GW of onshore wind farms.
• A number of large multinational technology companies and renewable energy developers in relation to the drafting and negotiation of corporate power purchase agreements (including the first to be announced in the Irish market) and on renewable energy procurement strategies, trading structures and agreements.