Quarles Advises on $120 Million Bond Issuance to Finance Argonne National Laboratory’s Next Supercomputer
September 25, 2023 (Chicago) -- Quarles & Brady LLP served as counsel to Fifth Third Securities Inc. as the underwriter on $120 million in bonds that were issued through the Illinois Finance Authority to finance Argonne National Laboratory’s Theory and Computing Sciences Building.
Located on the boundary of Argonne’s secure perimeter, the approximately 200,000-plus square-foot facility is home to the Aurora supercomputer, which is targeted to be the fastest computer in the U.S.—and to serve the mission of the Computing, Environment and Life Sciences directorate of Argonne National Laboratory to enable groundbreaking scientific and technical accomplishments in areas of critical importance to the 21st century by providing intellectual and technical leadership in computer science, applied computation mathematics and computation science.
Quarles initially represented Fifth Third Bank, National Association, on the origination of an approximately $80 million loan to Theory and Computing Sciences Building Trust, the conduit borrower, that was repaid with the proceeds of these latest bonds. In addition to repaying the loan, proceeds of the bonds are being used for capital improvements to the facility, fund a debt service reserve fund for the bonds and pay costs of issuance of the bonds.
Mary Ann Murray, national chair of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group; Jeff Peelen, national chair of the Public Finance Practice Group; and Tim Hinchman, a partner in the Public Finance Practice Group, led the Quarles team on the project.