Blake Beachler

Practice Areas

Public Finance

Public/Private Partnership Law

Public Law

Corporate and Finance

Government Relations and Legislation

Tax Law

Professional Memberships

National Association of Bond Lawyers, Member (2007-present)

Personal

Blake graduated from Yale University where he was a four-year letterman on the lacrosse team. He was a high school All-American Lacrosse Player; he has coached at the collegiate and youth levels.

Work Highlights

General Obligation Finance and Representation of Political Subdivisions:

Served as Bond Counsel in the issuance of $275 million of debt to finance a utility-scale solar project in a county in the Midwest.

Serving as bond counsel to a state agency client in its first issuance of bonds to finance a $70 million utility-scale solar project in the state. This was the first project of its kind to be financed by the agency and resulted in a 100% real property and sales tax abatement for the borrower.

Port Authority and Project Finance:

Represented the client in designing, structuring, documenting, and implementing a procurement program for the deployment of certain funds reserved for the development of electric vehicle (EV) charging station infrastructure, including advising on all procurement-related and project finance issues. This matter involved the development of a structure and documentation package for the development of EV charging infrastructure and related procurement activities and closing on more than 30 EV project sites.

Served as Underwriter’s Counsel to the publicly traded, Fortune 500 global financial institution in connection with the issuance by a State Treasurer of grant anticipation revenue vehicle bonds (GARVEE).

Representing a public Fortune 1000 pharmaceutical company client as borrower/lessee in a $200 million financing lease transaction with a port authority entity pursuant to a structure that allowed the client to save over $6 million in sales taxes on construction materials. Additional related transactions included property tax abatement and job creation tax credit transactions, resulting in additional savings on a $200 million construction project.

Health Care and 501(c)(3) Transactions:

Serving as bond counsel for a $310 million taxable bond issuance in 2021 by a health system to refinance an existing term loan and for general corporate purposes.

Representing a health system in a public offering of $190 million of tax-exempt bonds, including developing a springing master trust indenture.

Representing a 501(c)(3) borrower in the direct sale of $75 million of bonds to banks to construct a water, steam, and electric power system.

Education:

Served as Counsel for a public-private-partnership in connection with the monetization of $80 million in parking assets for a Midwestern U.S. university.

Serving as bond counsel in connection with the issuance of three series of bonds in the aggregate principal amount of approximately $570 million by the Ohio Public Facilities Commission to finance improvements to higher educational institutions and schools throughout Ohio.

Serving as bond counsel for a state university’s issuance of $130 million of bonds to finance stadium, housing and other capital improvements.

Transportation:

Serving as underwriter's counsel for a $180 million grant anticipation revenue vehicles (GARVEE) bonds issued to finance state infrastructure projects.

Serving as bond counsel for a $15 million bond issuance to finance a regional airport’s gate improvement project.

Developer Counsel:

Representing a developer in a $125 million taxable financing in connection with the transformation of a vacant building into a mixed-use, multi-story building with over 300 apartment units and 75,000 square feet of entertainment space.

Representing a developer in a public-private partnership financing of a $144 million mass timber mixed-use development, including the issuance of port authority bonds, a private loan from a financial institution, an Ohio Development Services Agency Chapter 166 loan, a City of Cleveland loan, and tax increment financing.

Trustee Counsel:

Representing one of the top 10 U.S. banking institutions in its capacity as trustee of several series of federal lease revenue bonds ($975+ million).

Representing the trustee in connection with seven separate federal lease revenue bond transactions in 2020 and 2021 aggregating in excess of $1 billion.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Career

As Leader of the Public Finance practice, Blake Beachler helps clients in a variety of industries, including financial services, health care and government. He regularly counsels health care providers, public and private universities, underwriters, financial institutions, counties, cities, port authorities and other political subdivisions on tax-exempt, taxable and other economic development matters.

While attending the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Blake was a member of the Technology, Law and Policy Journal and also interned for the Honorable Robert J. Cindrich for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Education