Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP represented Brightline Trains Florida as bond counsel on a $3.2 billion issuance of tax-exempt private activity bonds, earning The Bond Buyer’s 2024 Innovative Financing Deal of the Year. The deal’s structure included over $2.2 billion of investment grade tax-exempt bonds, $1.3 billion of taxable parent company notes, $925 million of tax-exempt bonds at the holding company level and other sources of capital, refinancing the company’s debt across three liens, and “achieving a new standard for multi-modal transit funding,” according to The Bond Buyer.

The Brightline recapitalization represents the largest private-activity bond issuance and first investment-grade debt for American high-speed rail. The Bond Buyer notes that, “[b]y attracting a diverse investor base, Brightline’s deal opens new avenues for large-scale infrastructure projects in a traditionally underserved financing sector.”

Brightline’s rail service, connecting Miami to Orlando, is the first privately owned and operated intercity passenger rail system built in the United States in a century.