Michael Melzer

/My focus

Over my career, I have facilitated raising nearly $90 billion across more than a thousand taxable and tax-exempt debt financing transactions for borrowers and projects in 29 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC. While I have experience with virtually every sector within the public finance space, my primary areas of focus include general government, public power, energy and utilities, transportation (including airports, ports and harbors, highways, and passenger rail), education, healthcare, senior living, economic development, hotels, and sports and convention facilities.

In addition to my traditional public finance work, where I’ve served as counsel to multiple states and countless cities, counties, and other units of local government, I’ve worked on several of the most innovative and high-profile public-private partnership (P3) transactions, including, but not limited to, large scale high-speed rail developments in Florida, California, and Nevada at an estimated total aggregate cost of over $15 billion; three airport terminal development and redevelopment projects with a total aggregate cost of over $14 billion; energy-as-a-service (EaaS) and energy service company (ESCO) financings in varying fields across five states; creation and implementations of an economic development plan projected to drive over $8 billion in local development; the expansion of a privately operated managed lane tollway; a marque hotel and resort development, as well as parking and sewer privatizations.

Beyond transactional work, I’ve also influenced public policy and regulatory frameworks, contributing to the drafting or modification of dozens of state statutes and constitutional provisions and the successful defense of IRS audits and FINRA, SEC, and SIGTARP enforcement actions.

The diversity of my experience across the project and public finance space is a strong asset that enables me to deliver practical, innovative solutions to the evolving challenges facing tax-advantaged borrowers, particularly in an era marked by economic uncertainty, shifting federal funding, and increased demand for resilient, sustainable infrastructure.

/Looking ahead

Project finance and public finance are in the midst of a challenging and demanding stretch. After another year of record issuance, industry participants continue rebuilding, modernizing, and hardening major infrastructure against a dynamic geopolitical environment, routine political scrutiny of tax-advantaged financing, and rating agencies signaling a modestly weaker tone. Capital needs are surging across the primary sectors I serve, including stadiums and mixed-use districts, ports and airports, general governmental services and infrastructure, and large institutional energy users (hospitals, universities, convention centers, and similar campuses) turning to energy-as-a-service to modernize and decarbonize without straining balance sheets. Public power, in particular, is entering a new era, drawing on project finance techniques to meet surging data center demand without putting existing customers at risk.

My focus in the year ahead is helping clients finance those projects on schedule, structure long-term contracts that hold up under stress, and deliver disclosure that stands up to a more discerning market.

/Insights

• “Public Power Amid Policy Shifts,” Where Public Finance Meets Infrastructure Innovation, July 15, 2026
• “Does America Have the Power for the Electrification of the Nation,” Smith’s Infrastructure Finance and Resiliency Conference, April 21, 2026
• “P3 Market Growth - Opportunities, Challenges, and Incentives,” The Bond Buyer Infrastructure Conference, September 30, 2025