When Pivot-Tech responded to Kendall County's RFP in May 2023, there was no finished template to follow. The 63-20 nonprofit bond model had been used in other contexts — municipal parking garages, civic facilities — but never at this scale for a greenfield broadband deployment combining a state grant with tax-exempt revenue bonds.
What followed was a 30-month journey through genuinely uncharted territory. The path to closing required educating state agencies on a structure they'd never evaluated, navigating competing regulatory frameworks, assembling a specialized legal and financial team, and spending nearly $1 million in professional fees just to build the legal architecture. Most companies would have walked away. Pivot-Tech stayed — because CEO Jim Cannon knew that proving this model once would make it infinitely repeatable.
In early 2026, the Fox Fiber broadband network closed $46 million in financing. The model works.
The Problem Kendall County Was Trying to Solve
Kendall County sits in the Chicago metropolitan area — close enough to see the skyline on a clear day — yet portions of the county remain without adequate broadband service. This isn't a remote rural corner of the country. It's a growing suburban community less than an hour from one of the nation's largest cities, and residents were stuck with slow, unreliable internet.
The county explored options. Traditional ISP expansions were slow and expensive — and ultimately dependent on private companies whose financial incentives didn't always align with serving lower-density areas. Municipal broadband came with concerns about placing debt on the county's balance sheet and taking on operational risk.
The P3 model offered a third path: community ownership through a nonprofit structure, financed by tax-exempt bonds secured by project revenues rather than municipal credit — with professional private-sector management handling operations. No impact to the county's credit rating. No risk to taxpayers. A permanent public asset.
"We're doing something that's new to the state of Illinois, not just to the county but really new to the United States. This is the future of connectivity. If this model works, it can be adopted by other communities."— Zach Bachmann, Kendall County Board Member, Chair of the Connect Kendall County Commission
A 30-Month Journey Through Uncharted Waters
The timeline tells the story of complexity that most developers in this space simply aren't built to absorb:
Pivot-Tech responds to Kendall County RFP. The engagement begins in earnest, with Pivot-Tech bringing both the technical broadband expertise and the 63-20 financing framework.
Formal engagement begins. Pivot-Tech and the County begin the detailed work of structuring the P3 entity, developing the business plan, and mapping the grant and bond financing strategy.
Illinois broadband grant application filed. The team works with the Illinois Office of Broadband on the Connect Illinois grant application — while simultaneously educating the agency on how grant premises differ from bond investor requirements.
$15M Connect Illinois grant awarded. A milestone that validated the project's eligibility and unlocked the next phase of bond financing work.
$31M bond financing closes. Fox Fiber, NFP issues tax-exempt revenue bonds, bringing total project financing to $46 million. Construction on Phase 1 scheduled to break ground Spring 2026.
What Made This Hard — And Why It Matters
The technical challenge of building a broadband network is, at this point, well understood. The financing challenge of the 63-20 P3 structure for broadband was not.
Several novel problems had to be solved simultaneously:
Key Challenges Overcome
- ✓ Dual regulatory frameworks: The Illinois Office of Broadband had never evaluated a true P3 structure. Grant premises (sparse rural areas that qualify for state funding) and bond premises (denser areas that generate sufficient revenue to support debt service) don't always overlap — requiring careful network design to satisfy both.
- ✓ Tax-exempt bond compliance: Municipal bond regulations impose specific constraints on asset acquisitions, management fee structures, and nonprofit governance that required careful legal architecture to maintain tax-exempt status.
- ✓ Specialized team assembly: The deal required Municipal Capital Markets Management as bond underwriter, Squire Patton Boggs for legal counsel, and Miller Canfield as bond counsel — a team assembled specifically because no generalist firm had the combined expertise this structure required.
- ✓ ~$1M in pre-closing legal costs: Building the legal framework from scratch — articles of incorporation, governance documents, management agreements, bond indenture — consumed nearly a million dollars and two years of development before a single foot of fiber was laid.
This is precisely why most developers walk away from deals like this. The upfront cost, complexity, and time investment are substantial — and the payoff only comes if you close. Pivot-Tech's willingness to absorb this investment is what makes the model work for communities that couldn't otherwise access it.
"Every other company in this market would have walked away from a 24-month sales cycle with this level of complexity. We stayed because we knew this model — once proven — becomes infinitely repeatable. Now we have the legal framework, the financing relationships, and the operational playbook to bring this structure to communities across the country."— Jim Cannon, CEO, Pivot-Tech Development
The Network: What Kendall County Is Getting
Fox Fiber will deliver high-speed internet to more than 12,000 locations in Phase 1 through a hybrid fiber and fixed wireless architecture spanning approximately 80 miles of middle-mile infrastructure. The hybrid approach is deliberate: fiber provides the permanent, future-proof backbone while Tarana G1 fixed wireless gear enables rapid deployment in areas where the economics of immediate fiber construction are challenging.
Critically, subscribers pay the same price regardless of whether they're connected by fiber or fixed wireless — and the network is designed with a clear upgrade path to fiber for FWA subscribers over time.
Fox Fiber Network Specifications
- ✓ 80+ miles of middle-mile fiber infrastructure
- ✓ Hybrid fiber + Tarana G1 fixed wireless architecture
- ✓ 12,000+ locations served in Phase 1
- ✓ Up to 60,000 locations in full county build-out
- ✓ Uniform pricing regardless of connection type
- ✓ Community ownership through Fox Fiber, NFP (63-20 nonprofit)
The Structure: How Ownership and Governance Work
Under the P3 structure, Fox Fiber, NFP — a 63-20 nonprofit corporation created specifically for this project — owns and operates the network. The nonprofit board includes community stakeholders and county representatives (80% community-appointed) alongside Pivot-Tech representation (20%). This ensures public accountability while enabling professional management.
Pivot-Tech provides development, design, construction management, and ongoing operations under a long-term management contract. Revenue from subscribers services the bond debt. When bonds are retired — approximately 30 years from closing — full ownership transfers to Kendall County as a permanent public asset. No municipal debt was incurred. The county's credit rating is unaffected. Residents did not pay for the buildout through taxes.
The Book That Became a Blueprint
There's a fitting symmetry to this closing. In 2024, while deep in the Kendall County engagement, Jim Cannon published The Definitive Guide to Public-Private Partnerships in Broadband — a practical framework for municipal leaders considering P3 structures drawn from the emerging lessons of exactly this project.
At the time of publication, the deal wasn't closed. The model was still theoretical. The book was the vision.
The Kendall County closing is the proof. And the proof changes everything. Because the legal framework is now built, the financing relationships are established, the regulatory education has been done, and the playbook exists. What took 30 months and $1 million in legal costs to create from scratch can now be replicated in a fraction of the time.
Communities across the country are watching. The question they were asking — can this model actually work? — now has an answer.
"The book was the vision. Kendall County is the proof. Time and perseverance delivered that vision."— Jim Cannon, CEO, Pivot-Tech Development