We sat down with Geoff Stricker, partner at Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate, to talk about what 25 years of leading complex public development projects has taught him, and why for him, it always starts with how you launch.

Q: What part of your work do you enjoy the most?

Geoff: That's like asking me which of my three kids is my favorite. I love working with our clients and helping them turn their visions into reality. I love working with our younger folks and training the next generation to succeed and grow. And I love the impact we have on communities, getting to talk with people about what's being built and how it can make their lives better.

And then there are the moments you just never forget. I grew up loving hockey. My son played from the time he was five years old all the way through high school. So when we got to build a hockey rink for Augustana University, and I walked out onto the ice at the opening game to drop the puck, that was something I'll carry with me forever. Jamie and I live a couple blocks apart in Falls Church, VA and our kids got to attend the middle school we helped deliver in our own neighborhood. My kids used to ask me what I do for work, and I got to tell them, you know that building you go to school in every day? We built that. That's a pretty special feeling. And I still hear from travelers who fly through Kansas City and can't stop talking about how much they love the new airport. You can't put a price on moments like those.

What's kept me here for the past 25 years is the people and the variety of projects. Every day looks different. One morning might be a conversation with a new client, the afternoon might be working through an operations issue on a project that's been open for years. That range is what keeps every day feeling fresh.

Q: Walk us through your approach. When you take on a new project, what does that process look like for you?

Geoff: If you launch a project the right way, it will be successful. If you don't, you spend the rest of the project trying to compensate for what was missed at the beginning. So we put a tremendous amount of focus on that early phase.

We start every project with a kickoff meeting where the entire team, the client, the architects, the contractors, everyone, sits down and agrees on how we're going to work together. Shared goals, shared values, written on a flip chart and signed. That foundation shapes everything that follows.

I also put a lot of emphasis on building rapport early, because people solve problems better when they know and trust each other. It always amazes me, when you do something as simple as asking a room full of people to share something on their bucket list, how quickly you find connections. Two people who didn't know each other five minutes ago discover they want to climb the same mountain or visit the same country, and now they have a reason to talk. Those small moments go a surprisingly long way when hard decisions need to be made later.

Beyond that, I believe 90% of the critical decisions happen in the first 10% of the project. Getting the right people involved, surfacing the key decisions early, and setting the right cadence of interaction from the start is what separates a project that runs smoothly from one that struggles to find its footing later.

And through all of it, we're transparent. We say what we're going to do, and then we do it. We don't play games and we don't mince words. That's just who all of us are as people. It sets a tone early that clients recognize quickly, and it builds the kind of trust that carries a project through its most challenging moments.

Q: You've never been afraid to take on something you haven't done before. Why is that?

Geoff: When I think about what we've done as a company, we've built roads, K-12 schools, university campuses, courthouses, civic centers, a hockey rink, data centers, an airport. Almost every time, it was a new product type for us.

What I've come to believe is that about 80 to 85% of what a real estate developer does is the same regardless of what you're building. You're managing architects, managing contractors, dealing with financing, getting permits, engaging the community. The last 15 to 20% is what's specific to that sector, and that's where you bring in the right expertise and partners. But the core of what we do transfers across everything.

When I look broadly across the competitive landscape, nobody has done the range of work that we've done. There are developers who specialize in one sector and know it inside and out, but nobody has the broad depth of experience across asset types and geography, all across the country, that we have. I think that truly makes us unique, because what we learn on a university project shows up in how we approach a civic project, and what we learn from an airport informs how we think about a courthouse. That cross-pollination of experience is something our clients benefit from whether they realize it or not.

Q: What do you think sets Edgemoor apart from other developers?

Geoff: A few things. The first is our track record. Over 25 years, every single project we've taken on has been delivered on time and on budget. And when you consider the range of work we've done, across sectors, across the country, through recessions and a pandemic, I think that speaks for itself.

The second is how we think about accountability. My reputation is worth far more to me than any return we will make on a project. If I mess up one project, I'm not getting work for five years. It's that simple. We don't have 300 projects where we can cherry pick the ones that went well. Every project we take on is high stakes, and our name is attached to every single one. There's a debate in our industry about whether developers need equity at risk to stay accountable. For us, the accountability has never been about the financial exposure. It's about the fact that our word, our brand, our reputation is on the line, every time, with every client, on every project.

We also approach financing differently. We're always looking for the better mousetrap. We'll look at multiple ways to bring capital into a project, understand our clients' constraints, whether that's cash flow, balance sheet, or whatever the case may be, and build a solution around that. A lot of firms take a cookie-cutter approach because that's what they've always done. We don't operate that way.

And then it comes back to the people. Neal and I have been here 25 years. The rest of the partners have all been here a long time too - with an average tenure of more than 15 years. When a client works with us, they're working with the same people from the first conversation through delivery and beyond. That continuity matters, and it's not something you find very often in our space.

Q: How does Edgemoor think about its role in the communities where you work?

Geoff: Community impact is not an afterthought for us, it's built into the process from day one. On the Kansas City Airport, we committed to 20% minority business participation and 15% women-owned business participation. And I set the tone from the beginning that those weren't goals to aim for and report on. They were commitments we intended to meet.

There's a real difference between setting a target and making a promise. We created programs specifically designed to remove barriers that typically prevent small, minority, and women-owned businesses from securing contracts on projects of this magnitude. A pay-without-delay program so firms weren't waiting months to get paid. A low-interest loan program to help with equipment and working capital. A workforce training initiative that created a pathway into the construction trades. By the end, 133 minority and women-owned firms were awarded contracts totaling more than $350 million, and 200 people who went through the workforce training program went on to work more than 200,000 hours on the new terminal.

What I was most proud of was how the team embraced it. Once the tone was set, it wasn't something I had to push for every day. The team internalized it and made it their own. That's what happens when you treat community impact as a mandate rather than a target.

Q: What excites you most about your work right now?

Geoff: After 25 years, I still get the same feeling when we're in the running for a new project. That never gets old. But what I think about just as much now is making sure we set this company up for the next 25 years. I care a lot about making sure the next generation of leaders here is ready to carry this forward. That they know the business, that they share the values, and that 25 years from now, the team is celebrating Edgemoor's 50th anniversary. We've always said there are three legs to the stool: win great work, execute great work, and take care of our people. That last one is what I'm most focused on right now, because the first two don't happen without it.

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Geoff Stricker is the managing partner at Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, where he has spent 25 years helping build the company into one of the nation's leading developers of complex public infrastructure. He led the pursuit and delivery of the Kansas City International Airport New Terminal, the University of Kansas Central District, and numerous other landmark projects across the country.