CHICAGO (May 18, 2016) – Northleaf Capital Partners (“Northleaf”) and AMP Capital have reached financial close on a transaction to acquire the largest underground parking system in the United States, Chicago Downtown Public Parking System (“Millennium Garages”), from LMG2, LLC, through a newly-established joint venture (“MPG LLC”).
The US$370 million acquisition gives the AMP Capital/Northleaf joint venture exclusive concessionaire rights and responsibilities to operate, manage, maintain and collect parking fees and other revenues in connection with the Millennium Garages system.
Millennium Garages includes 9,176 parking spaces in four underground parking garages underneath Millennium, Grant and Maggie Daley Parks. The facility is approximately 3.8 million square feet and extends from Van Buren Street to Randolph Street and in parts from Michigan Avenue to Lake Shore Drive.
AMP Capital Head of Americas Infrastructure Dylan Foo said: “Millennium Garages is the first North American asset for AMP Capital’s global infrastructure platform and fits perfectly with the platform’s mandate to invest in sectors offering the best relative value such as transport. Millennium Garages offers exciting growth potential for our investors due to the strength of Chicago’s economic and demographic factors, stable and predictable cash flows and strong protections through the concession agreement.”
Northleaf Managing Director and Co-head of Infrastructure George Zakem said: “Direct investments in conservatively-positioned infrastructure assets such as Millennium Garages are consistent with Northleaf’s investment strategy and offer significant potential for stable cash flows and attractive long-term returns for our investors.”
MPG LLC has also announced Chicago-based SP Plus Corporation will take over as operator of the garages in September 2016.
Macquarie acted as financial advisor to AMP Capital and Northleaf with Allen & Overy LLP and Barnes and Thornburg LLC serving as legal advisors. Evercore acted as the exclusive financial advisor to LMG2, LLC with Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Fox, Swibel, Levin & Carroll LLP serving as legal advisors.