The Lecture in Planning Series (LiPS) Panel

A Manhattan Bargain in Indiana: Asset Recycling as Economic Development in the New Contract State

Asset recycling, or leasing an existing public asset to private investors and reinvesting the proceeds, is widely promoted as a win-win: governments raise capital without new taxes or debt, and public infrastructure becomes an investment vehicle for global finance. This talk examines how, under that model, asset managers and the private sector become central actors in infrastructure development itself. Drawing on a longitudinal study of the 2006 Indiana Toll Road concession, through its 2014 bankruptcy and restructuring under global institutional investors, I investigate what is actually being developed when a road that already exists is private leased, owned, and managed for seventy-five years. In this account of public-private partnerships, this project examines how finance becomes the object of development itself, and what this means for regional economic development and the planning institutions meant to steer it.

Deepa Mehta is studies how global financial networks reshape urban and regional infrastructure. She holds a PhD in Urban Planning from Columbia University (2026) and teaches urban policy and planning at Hunter College, CUNY. Her dissertation traces the 2006 privatization of the Indiana Toll Road — a 75-year, $3.8 billion concession — through its 2014 bankruptcy and restructuring under global asset managers. She argues this form of infrastructure privatization reorganizes and transforms planning capacity over time. Deepa came to planning through community organizing. Her work has focused on studying craft, textiles manufacturing, technology, and other industrial networks, and has worked at the Institute for the Future and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements.

The Lecture in Planning Series (LiPS) is co-organized by the MSUP Program and second-year PhD students in Urban Planning: Light refreshments will be served. This event is open to Columbia University affiliates with a valid university ID. Any questions on the events can be directed Asher Alec Kelvin, aak2255@columbia.edu, Lauren Drew Leiker, ldl2124@columbia.edu and Kavyaa Rizal, kr3020@columbia.edu