PROJECTS

PROJECTS

IT IS EASY TO RECOGNIZE WHEN INFRASTRUCTURE FAILS, BUT MUCH HARDER TO INVEST IN NEW SYSTEMS TO PREVENT DISASTER.

At re:focus, we develop multi-year programs to proactively bridge this gap and bring together innovative partnerships to solve big problems and find transformational opportunities to protect and improve the lives of vulnerable and underserved populations.

IT IS EASY TO RECOGNIZE WHEN INFRASTRUCTURE FAILS, BUT MUCH HARDER TO INVEST IN NEW SYSTEMS TO PREVENT DISASTER.

At re:focus, we develop multi-year programs to proactively bridge this gap and bring together innovative partnerships to solve big problems and find transformational opportunities to protect and improve the lives of vulnerable and underserved populations.

THROUGH THE RE.INVEST INITIATIVE, THE RE:FOCUS TEAM WORKED WITH THE CITY OF HOBOKEN TO REDESIGN A CONTAMINATED 6-ACRE INDUSTRIAL SITE INTO A NEW FLOOD PROTECTION PROJECT.

“The NW Resiliency Park is a testament to the value of predevelopment. In 2013, Hoboken was selected as one of 8 winning cities of the RE.invest competition, created and led by re:focus partners. The re:focus team worked with us for 2 years to lay the groundwork for the ideas that shaped the park and its resilience benefits. With less than $350,000 in grant funding, the re:focus team brought together engineering, legal, and finance experts to help the City set the vision and generate the ambition for a fully-funded, community-led, and community-supported project. In dollars and cents, the materials prepared by re:focus enabled Hoboken to secure the initial $30M of acquisition funds, and set the template for the $50M of bonds issued to complete the $80M project by 2022. But for this early support, the resulting project would have undoubtedly been smaller and far less ambitious. The value of predevelopment can be hard to pin-down, but in this case, re:focus’ contributions were essential. They brought a level of rigor, professionalism, credibility, and creative flexibility to help us think bigger and build momentum to move from ideas to implementation.”

— Caleb Stratton, Assistant Business Administrator & Chief Resilience Officer, City of Hoboken

THROUGH THE RE.INVEST INITIATIVE, THE RE:FOCUS TEAM WORKED WITH THE CITY OF HOBOKEN TO REDESIGN A CONTAMINATED 6-ACRE INDUSTRIAL SITE INTO A NEW FLOOD PROTECTION PROJECT.

“The NW Resiliency Park is a testament to the value of predevelopment. In 2013, Hoboken was selected as one of 8 winning cities of the RE.invest competition, created and led by re:focus partners. The re:focus team worked with us for 2 years to lay the groundwork for the ideas that shaped the park and its resilience benefits. With less than $350,000 in grant funding, the re:focus team brought together engineering, legal, and finance experts to help the City set the vision and generate the ambition for a fully-funded, community-led, and community-supported project. In dollars and cents, the materials prepared by re:focus enabled Hoboken to secure the initial $30M of acquisition funds, and set the template for the $50M of bonds issued to complete the $80M project by 2022. But for this early support, the resulting project would have undoubtedly been smaller and far less ambitious. The value of predevelopment can be hard to pin-down, but in this case, re:focus’ contributions were essential. They brought a level of rigor, professionalism, credibility, and creative flexibility to help us think bigger and build momentum to move from ideas to implementation.”

— Caleb Stratton, Assistant Business Administrator & Chief Resilience Officer, City of Hoboken

HOBOKEN NW RESILIENCY PARK
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HOBOKEN NW RESILIENCY PARK
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CATALYZING LEGACY WATER SYSTEM UPGRADES THROUGH PROCUREMENT INNOVATION

Communities across the US are looking for ways to leapfrog to smarter, more sustainable infrastructure systems. But government procurement — the process of actually buying products and services, like smart sensors and flood barriers — is often a stumbling block. Procuring Resilience Opportunities (PRO) is a workshop-based project to help small and medium-sized cities use innovative procurement tools to jumpstart upgrades to their legacy water infrastructure systems.

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CATALYZING LEGACY WATER SYSTEM UPGRADES THROUGH PROCUREMENT INNOVATION

Communities across the US are looking for ways to leapfrog to smarter, more sustainable infrastructure systems. But government procurement — the process of actually buying products and services, like smart sensors and flood barriers — is often a stumbling block. Procuring Resilience Opportunities (PRO) is a workshop-based project to help small and medium-sized cities use innovative procurement tools to jumpstart upgrades to their legacy water infrastructure systems.

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LEVERAGING CATASTROPHE BONDS FOR RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT FINANCE

Resilient infrastructure finance is complex. The benefits of projects, like seawalls and green infrastructure, are often diffuse and realized far into the future. RE.bound is a global collaboration designed to link insurance solutions with investment in resilient infrastructure systems. The aim of this program is to develop a new type of Resilience Bond, based on insurance industry Catastrophe Bonds, to finance local resilience projects.

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LEVERAGING CATASTROPHE BONDS FOR RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT FINANCE

Resilient infrastructure finance is complex. The benefits of projects, like seawalls and green infrastructure, are often diffuse and realized far into the future. RE.bound is a global collaboration designed to link insurance solutions with investment in resilient infrastructure systems. The aim of this program is to develop a new type of Resilience Bond, based on insurance industry Catastrophe Bonds, to finance local resilience projects.

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DESIGNING FINANCEABLE STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PROJECTS

Over 800 older towns and cities across the US have combined water and sanitary sewers. When it rains, these combined systems can overflow, carrying untreated sewage into regional waterways. New regulatory requirements to dramatically reduce overflows or CSOs offer an opportunity to jumpstart green infrastructure investments that have long-term environmental, health, and social benefits. The Build it Green (BIG) Competition is a two-year (2016-2017) state-level program designed to provide technical assistance and engineering support services to New Jersey communities to develop integrated, financeable infrastructure projects to reduce CSOs and generate multiple local environmental and health benefits.

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DESIGNING FINANCEABLE STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PROJECTS

Over 800 older towns and cities across the US have combined water and sanitary sewers. When it rains, these combined systems can overflow, carrying untreated sewage into regional waterways. New regulatory requirements to dramatically reduce overflows or CSOs offer an opportunity to jumpstart green infrastructure investments that have long-term environmental, health, and social benefits. The Build it Green (BIG) Competition is a two-year (2016-2017) state-level program designed to provide technical assistance and engineering support services to New Jersey communities to develop integrated, financeable infrastructure projects to reduce CSOs and generate multiple local environmental and health benefits.

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TRANSFORMING URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE PREDEVELOPMENT

Cities across the US are facing challenges with rebuilding aging and failing infrastructure. RE.invest is a two-year (2013-2015) public-private collaboration to provide technical assistance to eight US cities with the aim of mobilizing private investment in more resilient and integrated local urban infrastructure systems and creating a replicable process for designing and financing new $100 million+ scale resilient infrastructure projects in cities around the world.

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TRANSFORMING URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE PREDEVELOPMENT

Cities across the US are facing challenges with rebuilding aging and failing infrastructure. RE.invest is a two-year (2013-2015) public-private collaboration to provide technical assistance to eight US cities with the aim of mobilizing private investment in more resilient and integrated local urban infrastructure systems and creating a replicable process for designing and financing new $100 million+ scale resilient infrastructure projects in cities around the world.

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PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Building resilience is inherently a long-term process. At re:focus most of our projects will take decades to be fully implemented or constructed. That said, all of our projects are also designed to generate clear short-term wins and results. Below are highlights of some of the clients we have supported and projects successes we have achieved to date.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Building resilience is inherently a long-term process. At re:focus most of our projects will take decades to be fully implemented or constructed. That said, all of our projects are also designed to generate clear short-term wins and results. Below are highlights of some of the clients we have supported and projects successes we have achieved to date.

The Hayward Regional Shoreline Adaptation Master Plan was commissioned in 2019 by the Hayward Area Shoreline Planning Agency (HASPA) a joint powers agency consisting of representatives from the City of Hayward, East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD), and Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD). The Master Plan includes multi-benefit strategies for the shoreline, its existing infrastructure, and the surrounding habitat to prepare for and adapt to sea-level rise and climate change.

Despite increasingly compelling evidence in support of natural infrastructure projects, large-scale investment is still lagging. This report focuses on providing guidance to project champions and funders to bridge the gap between early-stage valuation and feasibility studies and project finance and also offers a path to investment based on identifying specific drivers and project champions for nature-based solutions and then aligning the design of natural infrastructure projects with available financing tools.

In January 2018, the Centre for Global Disaster Protection with support from DFID and Lloyd’s of London launched its first Innovation Lab to help governments of developing countries identify new solutions for using insurance and risk transfer to become more resilient to natural disasters, avoid humanitarian crises, and enhance disaster aid. re:focus collaborated with RMS and Vivid Economics to design the Lab format, create workshop materials, and deliver preliminary and final reports on Innovative Finance for Resilient Infrastructure.

Resilient by Design was launched in May 2017 as a year-long collaborative design challenge bringing together local residents, public officials and local, national, and international experts to develop innovative community-based solutions to strengthen the San Francisco Bay Area’s resilience to sea level rise, severe storms, flooding and earthquakes. re:focus CEO, Shalini Vajjhala is a member of the finance advisory team and contributing author on the Finance Guide For Resilient By Design Bay Area Challenge Design Teams.

The City of New Orleans was one of 13 winners of the HUD National Disaster Resilience Competition, receiving an award of ~$140 million to implement a wide range of resilience projects. re:focus is providing technical assistance and advisory services to the City as part of a team of contractors focused on community-based project implementation and finance.

In support of the 100 Resilient Cities educational objectives, re:focus developed a new package of training material and applied learning content for a systems thinking and design module of a new 100 Resilient Cities Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) curriculum. Team members also delivered a workshop on urban resilience problem solving and systems thinking to select CROs and staff.

In 2014 President Obama announced the National Disaster Resilience Competition, a $1billion program to allocate HUD disaster recovery funds to support resilience innovation. Members of the re:focus team served as subject matter experts, advisors, and facilitators for multiple regional academies to support eligible jurisdictions in developing their applications and identifying opportunities to leverage additional resources.

The Hayward Regional Shoreline Adaptation Master Plan was commissioned in 2019 by the Hayward Area Shoreline Planning Agency (HASPA) a joint powers agency consisting of representatives from the City of Hayward, East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD), and Hayward Area Recreation and Park District (HARD). The Master Plan includes multi-benefit strategies for the shoreline, its existing infrastructure, and the surrounding habitat to prepare for and adapt to sea-level rise and climate change.

Despite increasingly compelling evidence in support of natural infrastructure projects, large-scale investment is still lagging. This report focuses on providing guidance to project champions and funders to bridge the gap between early-stage valuation and feasibility studies and project finance and also offers a path to investment based on identifying specific drivers and project champions for nature-based solutions and then aligning the design of natural infrastructure projects with available financing tools.

In January 2018, the Centre for Global Disaster Protection with support from DFID and Lloyd’s of London launched its first Innovation Lab to help governments of developing countries identify new solutions for using insurance and risk transfer to become more resilient to natural disasters, avoid humanitarian crises, and enhance disaster aid. re:focus collaborated with RMS and Vivid Economics to design the Lab format, create workshop materials, and deliver preliminary and final reports on Innovative Finance for Resilient Infrastructure.

Resilient by Design was launched in May 2017 as a year-long collaborative design challenge bringing together local residents, public officials and local, national, and international experts to develop innovative community-based solutions to strengthen the San Francisco Bay Area’s resilience to sea level rise, severe storms, flooding and earthquakes. re:focus CEO, Shalini Vajjhala is a member of the finance advisory team and contributing author on the Finance Guide For Resilient By Design Bay Area Challenge Design Teams.

The City of New Orleans was one of 13 winners of the HUD National Disaster Resilience Competition, receiving an award of ~$140 million to implement a wide range of resilience projects. re:focus is providing technical assistance and advisory services to the City as part of a team of contractors focused on community-based project implementation and finance.

In support of the 100 Resilient Cities educational objectives, re:focus developed a new package of training material and applied learning content for a systems thinking and design module of a new 100 Resilient Cities Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) curriculum. Team members also delivered a workshop on urban resilience problem solving and systems thinking to select CROs and staff.

In 2014 President Obama announced the National Disaster Resilience Competition, a $1billion program to allocate HUD disaster recovery funds to support resilience innovation. Members of the re:focus team served as subject matter experts, advisors, and facilitators for multiple regional academies to support eligible jurisdictions in developing their applications and identifying opportunities to leverage additional resources.