Duisburg: PPP Project New Vocational School "Mitte" Successfully Completed

One of the most innovative vocational school buildings is being
constructed in Duisburg. About 5,000 students will enjoy new workshops,
labs, classrooms, a four-field gymnasium, an assembly hall and a
cafeteria as well as an underground car park. Two structures will be
connected with each other by a glass light-flooded main corridor that
will serve as forum and meeting point.

With the vocational school, three Duisburg-based schools will get a new
joint location. For this project, Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek´s procurement
law specialists designed a tailor-made award procedure, which also
accommodated the specific requirements arising from the financial and
economic crisis. In difference to traditional construction awards
following prior architect competitions, the City of Duisburg was able to
select the best solution in terms of planning and quality that could be
implemented for a given limited budget. All offers had to include
binding price quotes of the construction company with their
architectural designs.

The winning bidder, Bielefeld-based Goldbeck Public Partner GmbH, is
required to build the vocational school within 19 months, to finance it
and so subsequently maintain and operate it for 25 years. The City of
Duisburg will remain owner of the properties on which the vocational
school will be built and will become owner of the new vocational school.
The gross investment volume for the construction project is about EUR 74
million. When compared with the City of Duisburg implementing the
project itself, the PPP model with the private partner shows an
advantage in cost-effectiveness of about EUR 6 million. For this reason,
the district government also approved the model.

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek supported the City of Duisburg in the
European-wide negotiation procedure for searching the private partner.
Dr. Ute Jasper, Partner, and Barbara Frfr. von der Recke, attorney from
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek's Düsseldorf office, were responsible for legal
project planning and execution, the drafting of all contracts for the
vocational school and the negotiations with the bidders. The procedure
was successfully completed without a review procedure.