Public Finance

In 1977, Climaco, Lefkowitz, Peca, Wilcox & Garofoli became the youngest law firm in the State of Ohio, and only the second firm in the City of Cleveland, to be recognized as accredited municipal bond counsel in the Bond Buyer's Municipal Marketplace, or the "Redbook." Since that time, the firm has served as bond counsel, issuer's counsel or underwriter's counsel in over 100 transactions involving over $3.5 billion of financing.

The firm served as co-consultant and legal advisor to Cleveland City Council in connection with the establishment of the City's cable television franchise and as counsel to the City of Cleveland in matters relating to the City's municipal owned power system. The firm also represented the City of Cleveland in the resolution of the dispute over the development of the Highland Hills, Ohio property.

As counsel to Gateway and the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, CLPWG was intimately involved with bringing to reality Jacobs Field, Gund Arena, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, the Great Lakes Science Center, the new headquarters of Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc., and several soon to be made public projects.

Other financing transactions undertaken by the Port Authority through the Bond Fund Program with CLPWG's assistance include construction projects for Jergens, Inc. and NOACA. In addition, the firm served as the Port Authority's counsel and advisor in the purchase of the C & P Ore Docks from Conrail, including the structuring of a $6.5 million public finance package to fund the acquisition.

The firm provided public finance services to many other public and quasi-public issuers in the State of Ohio including the Ohio Turnpike Commission, the Ohio Building Authority, Montgomery County, the City of Parma, the City of Cleveland Heights, Lake County Metroparks System and the City of Campbell. As issuers counsel to the Ohio Turnpike, CLPWG has been an intricate part of the toll road's $1.2 billion capital expansion project.