Independent advisors to issuers and borrowers of municipal bonds

Columbia Capital is a full-service municipal bond financial advisor and an investment adviser with a portfolio spanning more than 1,570 transactions representing nearly $83 billion in bonds sold. The firm is registered as a municipal advisor and an investment adviser with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

We are trusted, experienced and fiercely independent.

More than just bond advisors and money managers, we improve the communities in which we work. For decades, we've been making a difference in the world we live in—reshaping skylines, keeping trains running on time and positively impacting how we work, live and play. Our work doesn't just impact institutions—ultimately, it's the businesses and families in these communities that benefit from our efforts.

Trusted

Issuers and borrowers large and small, from coast to coast, have relied upon Columbia Capital as a strategic advisor for 25 years.

Experienced

Columbia Capital combines 150 years of public finance expertise among its team of highly experienced, proven professionals.

Independent

Columbia Capital is unaffiliated with commercial and investment banks, insurance companies and others in the financial services industry.

The Columbia Capital
Difference

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investors

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0 Percent chance we'll ever be underwriting bonds for a comparable issuer at the same time as advising on yours

Areas of Impact

Iconic InfrastructureLearn More

Over the years, we have definitely advised on our fair share of infrastructure that mostly goes unnoticed: streets, curbs and gutters; street lighting; water and sewer mains; public parking facilities. But we also have had the opportunity to change skylines, and protect and improve natural treasures. We are proud to have advised on the financings of unique, iconic and important buildings and facilities around the U.S., from the seismic retrofitting of the historic Mission-style Yountville, California, Town Hall, to the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas, to the replacement of the motors for the trams in the iconic Gateway Arch that convey nearly one million visitors a year to a bird’s eye view of St. Louis.

Transportation SystemsLearn More

Every year, more than 635 million riders commute to work and school on our clients’ buses, trains and paratransit vehicles. We work closely with our public transit clients not only to fund their capital programs, but to help them manage their finances strategically so that they can be a relevant part of the workings of our urban cities and counties for years to come. More than a billion vehicles travel each year on the toll roads we’ve worked with over the years. Nearly 50 million people annually travel through the airports we helped finance.

Public SpacesLearn More

Taller than the US Capitol, taking more than 37 years to build, the Kansas state capitol had fallen into disrepair. When the State embarked on a multi-year effort to ensure this treasure could last another 150 years, Columbia Capital was there to advise on the borrowings that funded this significant undertaking. The fact that many of us live and work in Kansas makes the result much more poignant. When our kids travel to Topeka for Kansas Day, they get to sing, “Home on the Range” in the fully-restored rotunda—and then we get to watch their eyes get big when we tell them we were part of the team that made that restoration happen.

EducationLearn More

Every fall, more than 160,000 students return to class on campuses served by Columbia Capital. From academic buildings to research facilities to student unions, our work provides today’s students with the high-tech, high-touch campus environments they expect. We have also guided our clients through challenging times resulting from changing student demographics, cuts in state funding for public higher education and student scholarships, and college affordability concerns.

Clean WaterLearn More

All of us are downstream of someone else’s wastewater treatment plant. Because of that, governments work hard to ensure the health of their downstream neighbors by properly treating wastewater and managing storm water runoff. Our work directly with water and wastewater utilities—and with state programs that provide low-costs borrowing programs for water and wastewater utilities—helps ensure that the environment is protected and that our drinking water is safe.

Public Health & SafetyLearn More

A stroke of a pen in Washington DC instantly made property ownership in the St. Louis Metro East area significantly more expensive. Regulators determined that the Mississippi River levee systems were no longer sufficient to provide the required 100-year flood protection. Columbia Capital worked with the Southwestern Illinois Flood Protection District Council to develop a long-term plan of finance to fully leverage its dedicated sales tax to both complete the 100-year improvements and make substantial progress toward restoring the levees to their historical 500-year level of protection. As a result, the 150,000 residents and businesses of Metro East will see lower flood insurance premiums and stronger levees about 30 years earlier than if the Federal government had undertaken the projects directly.

Economic DevelopmentLearn More

Developers have invested over $1 billion and constructed 13 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space near the state of the art rail/highway intermodal facility in Edgerton, Kansas. Companies like Amazon, Kubota and Spectrum Brands have located in the city to take advantage of this unique facility in the Kansas City metro. Columbia Capital has worked closely with the City of Edgerton and the master developer to develop a unique public-private partnership that facilitated more than $100 million of infrastructure development by this community of 1,700 people in support of one of the largest economic development projects in the state’s history.

Social InfrastructureLearn More

When Alphapointe, a Midwest non-profit providing visual rehabilitation services, stepped into save a sister organization in New York City, it was faced with the prospect of losing its 250-strong workforce of highly-skilled blind, low vision and sighted individuals if it could not find and renovate a suitable replacement for its facility on Manhattan Island. Columbia Capital guided Alphapointe through a complex and challenging financing to provide tax-exempt bonds proceeds for site acquisition, environmental remediation and renovation of a light industrial site suitable for a blind and low-vision workforce.

Independent advisors to issuers and borrowers of municipal bonds

We are trusted, experienced and fiercely independent.

Trusted

Experienced

Independent

The Columbia Capital Difference

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outsideinvestors

0

bank affiliations

0

Percent outside ownership

0

dollars of company debt

0

Percent chance we'll ever be underwriting bonds for a comparable issuer at the same time as advising on yours