Related Forms New Infrastructure Investment Group

By Gail Kalinoski

Anthony Foxx

Related Cos. has formed an investment group to focus on transportation infrastructure and has named two former federal transportation officials to spearhead the new venture.

Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Andrew Right, a longtime infrastructure investment executive who also served in the DOT in the Obama administration, will lead Related Infrastructure as managing partners. Related Infrastructure is part of the Related Fund Management, which has raised over $5 billion of capital for the platform since it was formed in 2009 to provide real estate-related investment advisory services.

Targeted investments of Related Infrastructure will include platforms that develop and manage transportation-related assets, municipal assets as well as companies providing infrastructure-related businesses, services and technologies. One area of investment is likely to be businesses providing, operating and maintaining the services and technologies that are critical to smart cities, resilient energy infrastructures and urban technology deployments.

The new investment focus comes at a time when the Associated General Contractors of America is raising concerns about the growing shortfall in transportation, water and wastewater infrastructure spending this year. The association noted that between January and October, overall spending on public construction projects shrank 3.4 percent and called on federal, state and local government officials to address problem.

Infrastructure Plan

Andrew Right

President Donald Trump is expected to release his long-awaited infrastructure proposal before the Jan. 30 State of the Union address. The plan, which hasn’t been made public, is expected to call for allocating at least $200 billion in federal funds over a decade in an effort to stimulate about $800 billion in spending by states, municipalities and the private sector, according to a Bloomberg report.  Bloomberg notes that the idea is to shift the burden for funding from the federal government to state and local governments by providing incentives to work with the private sector and other sources.

Justin Metz, managing principal of Related Fund Management, said Foxx and Right “bring a unique set of complementary skills to Related Infrastructure.”

“Secretary Foxx has unparalleled experience in the public sector, having served as a member of the Charlotte City Council, Mayor of Charlotte and most recently, U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Andrew Right has been an infrastructure investor for a decade with experience financing, investing and growing transportation assets. Their combined public, private and investment perspectives make them the ideal leaders for this new business,” Metz said in a prepared statement.

Prior to his appointment as transportation secretary by former President Barack Obama, Foxx was the mayor of Charlotte, where he helped lead expansions of highway, transit and airport projects. As DOT secretary, he oversaw a $70 billion budget covering air, maritime and surface transportation and placed $30 billion in federal grants throughout the United States and U.S. territories.

Right also worked at the DOT in recent years, serving as counselor to the secretary and acting executive director of the Build America Bureau. Previously, he founded Cherry Lane Capital and served as a member of the founding team that formed the Infrastructure Investment Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Photos courtesy of Related Cos.