Christopher J. Reitzel

My focus

I have extensive experience representing issuers and underwriters in the areas of transportation and infrastructure, public power, environmental, higher education, health care and housing, and securitizations, including work on financings for the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), Empire State Development (ESD), Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC), the City of New York (NYC), and the Oklahoma Development Finance Authority.

Complex Project Experience

I have been fortunate to be involved in some uniquely complex, multi-disciplinary transactions. I served as bond counsel to ESD (through the New York Transportation Development Corporation (an ESD-related entity)) in the approximately $2.4 billion P3 bond financing for the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport in New York City, which was awarded The Bond Buyer’s Regional Deal of the Year award in 2016.

Recently, I have been involved in a number of important transactions for the State of New York (as bond counsel for financings done through DASNY and as bond and underwriters’ counsel for financings done through ESD), MTA, LIPA, and NYC. For the State, LIPA and NYC, that work includes their initial environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) bond issuances.

Disclosure

Much of my work involves serving as disclosure counsel, regularly assisting two very active issuers with multifaceted operations and diverse financing programs. Since 2000, I have been EFC’s disclosure counsel for its State Revolving Fund programs, as well as disclosure counsel to LIPA (and the Utility Debt Securitization Authority (UDSA)) since 2008. In both cases, I get to work with incredibly talented and dedicated in-house teams on cutting-edge financings.

Representative experience

• Served as bond counsel to DASNY since 1998 for billions of dollars of private client financings
• Served as bond counsel to ESD private financings such as the New York Transportation Development Corporation (an ESD-related entity) for its $2.4 billion P3 bond financing and Delta Terminal financing for the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport in New York City
• Served as underwriters’ counsel to Citigroup in connection with the multi-billion P3 bond financing for the New Terminal One project
• Serve as bond counsel to ESD and DASNY for Personal Income Tax and Sales Tax Revenue Bond Programs, including the State of New York’s initial Green Bonds issuance
• Serve as disclosure counsel to EFC (since 2000) for its State Revolving Fund programs and LIPA (since 2008) for its financings and its bankruptcy-remote special purpose securitization entity, UDSA, including its first issuance of Green Bonds
• Served as disclosure counsel to Oklahoma Development Financing Authority (ODFA) for its utility securitization financings in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri
• Serve as bond counsel to MTA for its multi-credit financing programs, including the $1.24 billion payroll mobility tax senior lien deal for MTA Bridges and Tunnels—deal marked the first new financing credit for the MTA’s transit and commuter capital program since its 2002 restructuring and first long-term issuance under the security and received The Bond Buyer’s “Northeast Deal of the Year” award in 2021
• Serve as underwriters’ counsel for numerous NYC general obligation financings, including NYC’s first Social Bonds issuance

Looking ahead

Creative financing solutions. The recent financing environment exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing our industry to develop new ways to finance growing infrastructure needs, including increased use of securitizations to finance or refinance such costs. In addition, to satisfy the investor community, we should expect an increase in ESG-type bond issuances.