The government of Australian Capital Territory (ACT Govrnment) has selected Jurist Partnership as the preferred bidder for  the ACT Courts Facilities PPP project.

The wining team is composed of Laing O'Rourke Construction, Australia Construction, Programmed Facility Management, Macquarie Capital Group and Lyons Achitecture. The consortium beat out competition from Capital Courts, which is composed of Richard Crookes Constructions, Brookfield Johnson Controls, Amber Infrastructure and Bates Smart Architects with Katsieris Origami Architecture.

The project is expected to meet the territory's needs for the next 50 years in a more functional, flexible and sustainable way. It will increase increase from the current 17 court rooms to capacity for 22, with 18 planned for immediate operation. Five of the new courtrooms will be fitted to accommodate juries, almost doubling the current capacity of three.

Under the PPP contract the wining consortia will be responsible for the design, construction, financing and maintaining the precinct for the next 25 years.

The total project investment is estimated at A$150 million (US$108.2 million). 

This is the ACT's first entry into the PPP market, with other states and territories already having successfully taken advantage of this infrastructure delivery model. Other courts projects around the country, like the Perth CBD Courts and the County Court of Victoria have been delivered successfully through PPPs.