Kenneth M. Neighbors focuses his practice primarily in the area of public finance, providing legal advice in support of public-private partnerships, governmental financing and economic development initiatives ranging from transportation and integrated transit projects, tax allocation (TIF) district formation and financing, and other tax-exempt bond financings.
Ken has significant experience with mixed-use, commercial, retail and multi-family real estate financings, including with transit-oriented developments. Ken’s work also focuses on the implementation of federal, state and city supported economic development programs and initiatives, including community land trusts and other affordable housing programmatic development. Ken also provides business and legal advice in connection with the acquisition, sale and management of real estate holdings, and provides general representation in connection with corporate matters and corporate and venture capital financing transactions.
Prior to his practice as a lawyer, Ken served as a merchant and investment banker, and as a senior officer of an investment firm focusing on the Emerging Domestic Marketplace (EDM).
Experience
- Ongoing advice to the Georgia Department of Transportation in connection with planned transportation public-private partnerships, including for Georgia State Route 400, one of the state’s busiest highways.
- Acted as Lead and Local counsel in connection with the negotiation, structuring, implementation and financing of various transportation and integrated transit public-private partnerships (toll road, Light rail and multi-modal projects), and regionally significant Base Realignment and Closure Act and Brownfield projects.
- Served as Special Assistant Attorney General (Georgia) as part of the legal team assigned to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority in connection with the structuring, negotiation and implementation of the replacement to the Georgia Dome (now the Mercedes-Benz Stadium) and the planned convention center hotel project.
- Participated in the formation and/or implementation of 12 tax allocation (TIF) districts in Georgia, including state and local legislative drafting, policy formulation, community and public official presentations and briefings, and research, analysis and resolution of complex legal issues.
- Acted as special counsel to the City of Atlanta in connection with the structuring, negotiating and implementing of a public-private partnership to develop and complete a significant component of the 22-mile loop of parks, pedestrian/bike trails and future transit connecting more than 40 neighborhoods around the City of Atlanta, commonly known as the ”Atlanta BeltLine” project.
- Represented initial purchasers in connection with a combined Regulation 144A/Regulation S offering of a $608.5 million note to refinance existing municipal bond debt for an expressway project in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.
- Represented a leading financial institution as underwriters counsel for the $537.51 million Texas Private Activity Bond Surface Transportation Corporation Senior Lien Revenue Refunding Bonds, Series 2020A and the $7.025 million Texas Private Activity Bond Surface Transportation Corporation Senior Lien Revenue Refunding Bonds related to the I-685 managed lane project.
- Represented a leading financial institution as underwriters counsel in the issuance of $331.79 million Texas Private Activity Bond Surface Transportation Corporation Senior Lien Revenue Refunding Bonds Series 2019A and $871 million Texas Private Activity Bond Surface Transportation Corporation Senior Lien Revenue Refunding Bonds Taxable Series 2019B related to the North Tarrant Express managed lane project.
- Served as Underwriter’s Counsel in connection with the structuring and implementation of a bond financing program with a tiered revenue stream derived from community improvement district, special assessment, tax allocation (TIF) district and payment-in-lieu of taxes revenue streams.
- Acted as principal drafter of a new markets tax credit allocation application for a public-private partnership entity which received an allocation of $60 million.
- Emory University School of LawJD1995
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Florida A&M UniversityBS
summa cum laude
1988
Listed, “Legal Elite”, Georgia Trend magazine, 2008-2010, 2012-2014, 2016-2017, 2020, 2021
Listed, Super Lawyers magazine, Georgia Super Lawyers, 2013-2018
Named, “Client Service All-Star,” BTI Client Service All-Stars Report, 2015
Profiled, Who’s Who in Black Atlanta, 13th Edition, 2011
- Author, Five Things Affordable Housing Developers Need to Know About the American Rescue Plan Act, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, September 8, 2022
- Author, Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds: Five Things Governments Need to Know, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, June 9, 2021
- Author, $350 Billion Slated for State, Local Governments as President Signs American Rescue Plan, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, March 12, 2021
- Author, COVID-19: IRS Aids State and Local Governments With Tax-Exempt Tender Bonds and Commercial Paper, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, May 12, 2020
- Author, Treasury Approves New Municipal Liquidity Facility to Aid States, Counties and Cities, McGuireWoods Legal Alert, April 10, 2020
- Georgia
- Florida
- Panelist, Georgia Business Landscape: General Assembly Update and Working with State, Local Jurisdictions, July 9, 2020
- Frequent panelist, "Public-Private Partnerships", National Association of Bond Lawyers, National Association of Investment Professionals, and CDFA, 2015-2017