At a Glance

Sector:  Higher Ed / K-12

Location:  Falls Church, VA

Delivery:  Public-Private Partnership (PPEA)

Scale:  131,000 SF Academic Facility

Certification: LEED Gold

Result: Delivered 2 Years Ahead of Schedule | $10 Million Under Budget | Virginia's First Educational Facility Delivered Under PPEA

The Situation

The City of Falls Church needed a new middle school. The community was growing, classrooms were overcrowded, and space was running out. The need was clear but the path to solving it was not.

For a city of just two and a half square miles, entirely inside the Washington, DC beltway, available land is essentially nonexistent. The city had been issuing requests for proposals asking developers to help solve the problem, but every approach on the table assumed the city would need to acquire several acres in an adjacent municipality, bussing students out of their own community to attend school. That path would have added an estimated $8 million in land acquisition costs and years of process, with no guarantee of success.

The city needed a different answer.

What We Proposed

Rather than searching for land that didn't exist within the city, we looked at what the city already had. By examining Falls Church's existing holdings, specifically the property around the high school, we found that the pieces could be rearranged to accommodate a new middle school on land the city already owned.

That single insight changed the entire trajectory of the project. It eliminated the need for new land acquisition, saved the city millions of dollars and roughly three years of planning and approvals, and kept the school where it belonged: in the heart of the community it would serve.

The project was structured as Virginia's first educational facility delivered under the Public-Private Educational Facilities Infrastructure Act, which integrated entitlement, design, construction, financing, and delivery under one team. For a small city with limited internal development capacity, that structure was critical. It meant Falls Church didn't have to manage the complexity on their own. They had a partner who would handle the heavy lifting while keeping them at the center of every key decision.

How It Was Delivered

This was not a large, high-profile project by Edgemoor's standards. There was no complex financial structuring, no multi-agency stakeholder landscape, no national attention. What it required was something just as valuable: a team that would treat a $25 million middle school with the same level of care and commitment as a $1.2 billion airport.

Throughout the process, we worked closely with school board members, the superintendent, city council members, and the mayor to make sure every decision was made collaboratively and that the project stayed true to what the community actually needed.

The project was delivered two years ahead of the original schedule and $10 million under budget. That outcome didn't come from cutting corners. It came from getting the foundational decisions right from the start, beginning with where to build.

A Different Kind of Experience

At the dedication ceremony, the superintendent of the Falls Church school system shared something that has stayed with us ever since. She said that throughout her career, she had built a lot of facilities and had always dreaded the weekly contractor meetings. They were never enjoyable. She would sit for two hours while people threw problems at her.

On this project, she said, she came to look forward to the meetings. Not because there weren't any problems, but because when problems were raised, solutions were offered alongside them. All she had to do was make a decision.

That is something we take a lot of pride in. We believe our clients should never have to carry the burden of the process. Our job is to do the heavy lifting so they can stay focused on the decisions that matter most to their community. When that is working, the process stops being something a client has to get through and becomes something they actually enjoy.

A Community Asset, 20 Years Later

Two of Edgemoor's partners, Jamie and Geoff, raised their families in Falls Church, and their kids all attended this school. This was not a project delivered to a distant client, it was built for a community that we were already a part of. 

Twenty years later, the building continues to serve as one of the most active and important facilities in the city. It is where students learn, where community events are held, and where families gather on weekends for sports and activities. It has performed exactly as it was designed to, quietly and reliably, for two decades now.

The Bigger Picture

Falls Church asked developers to go find land for a new school. We showed them they didn't need to. That willingness to challenge the premise, to look deeper at what a client actually needs rather than simply answering what they've asked for, shows up on every project we take on, regardless of scale.

Not every project makes national headlines. Some are $25 million middle schools in small cities where the mayor points at you during the city council vote and says, "We know where you live, so don't screw this up." We love those projects. The commitment they require and the pride that comes from getting them right is no different than anything else in our portfolio. And twenty years from now, when the building is still quietly doing its job, that is the real measure of success that matters most.