E=WAY
FUNDING
Public-Private Partnership
The relative success of many commuter rail operations relies on the strength of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) associated with the project. Transit Innovations has been working with the FRA, State of Wisconsin, City of Milwaukee, and other government agencies, as well as private entities on the construct
of a PPP.
The Milwaukee E=Way Commuter Rail System relies upon state and federal funding to support this massive project to finally bring commuter rail to Milwaukee and the region. After conducting final strategic planning meetings with Canadian Pacific and Union Pacific rail carriers, it was mandated that TI seek federal transportation funding to assist in providing for infrastructure costs as incremental station development is executed. Such funding provides the needed support for high impact infrastructure issues that would otherwise be cost prohibitive in our sequencing plan. Furthermore, TI is building partnerships between WisDOT, HUD, and HHS and seeking state funding to coordinate the deployment of transportation and housing investments around livability principles that facilitates programs of healthier community outcomes in terms of quality of life,
The E=Way has come a long way in gathering local, regional, and statewide support resulting from years of planning and consulting to gain favorable consensus and support to access federal infrastructure funding from several applicable grants where the E-Way project meets criteria including:
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Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program Grant (RCPP)
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Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity Grant (RAISE)
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MEGA
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INFRA
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Areas of Persistent Poverty Program
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Community Block Grants
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Milwaukee Municipal Sewage District Environmental Grants (MMSD)
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First Industrial Ring Enterprise Grant (FIRE)
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Enterprise Zone Funding
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Wisconsin Housing & Economic Development Authority (WHEDA)
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Tax Increment Financing
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Wisconsin Department of Transportation Grant
The E=Way Project is built upon a $400M Private Activity Bond (PAB) to be administered by the Redevelopment Authority, City of Milwaukee (RACM) to initiate the bond in a timely schedule with the RCPP Grant. TI is contracted with New York banker Castle Placement to provide both debt & equity to fund the project. TI has committed with Citigroup to provide the PAB through a set of terms and conditions. TI was working with Triple I Partners as equity partners to release the $400M PAB with a $50M contribution. This contract lapsed during the COVID pandemic and is being renegotiated at this time.
TI has received support and research in making the E-Way project shovel ready from such agencies as WE Energies, M-7 Regional Economic Development, Greater Milwaukee Committee, and Milwaukee Municipal Association of Commerce. Because each specific station development project is built on TI privately owned land, each project then is planned, designed, financed independently, allowing each Station Community to provide alternative funding in matches through Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), New Market Tax Credits, conventional TIDs, and other environmental redevelopment funding resources available to TI.
