In September the Build America Bureau (BAB) announced the award of 45 grants totaling $49.46 million under the asset concessions study program included in the IIJA. A later round of planning grants will likely award the remainder of the $100 million in grants included in the legislation.
The grants are awarded under the Innovative Finance and Asset Concession Grant Program (IFACGP) and the awards were made following a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) published in March. There are two types of grants awarded under the program. The Technical Assistance grants are intended to help agencies build some internal capacity or hire consultants to plan or procure projects under the program, or to complete “asset scan” studies that evaluate potential brownfield assets to be included in an asset concession program. Rather than a specific project or transaction, these grants support more programmatic development of asset concession programs.