In an interview with Brian Dugan, partner at Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate, he talked about how he approaches complex civic development projects, what he's learned from leading them, and why the work has always been personal.

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

Brian: The most satisfying part is seeing how our projects allow the people on the client side to feel so proud when they're complete, and then seeing the end users actually thriving in these spaces. I get people regularly who know that we did the Kansas City Airport, and they're excited to tell me how much better it is than the last time they flew through. And I had a small piece of that project, but it's cool just to see how our projects impact the people who use them. I really like to see that the owners who bet on us as a development partner feel validated that they made the right decision.

The other piece that's really cool about what we do is we're always part of a team, and each team is different and unique. I work for Edgemoor, but it really feels like I work for the Howard County firm, and I work for the Garden Grove firm, because it's a whole different set of people on each one. You spend so much time on these projects that your company actually becomes the project.

Q: What type of problem do you find the most interesting to solve?

Brian: I've always enjoyed design. Coming up with the design that meets the mark is a really good feeling. And I don't just mean something that looks good aesthetically, although that matters. What really excites me is when the design actually improves the daily experience for the people using the building — when you can see that the way a space is configured makes someone's work life or their interaction with that facility meaningfully better. When I feel like we as a developer have had input on the design and the design really nailed it for the client and the end user, that's a cool challenge. I used to want to be an architect growing up and actually worked in an architecture firm between high school and college, so I tend to lean in a little bit on the design side for our projects.

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

Brian: Everything I think about is really about setting the project up for success. So the first question is, do we really understand the goals of the client? Do we really understand what they want, and are we giving them what they want? Do we have the right value proposition? Sometimes in our industry, we default to technical language that doesn't match how our clients actually think about their projects. So it starts with making sure we're speaking their language, understanding what they really want, and crafting our solution to meet those goals.

Then it's about the team. Do we have the right firms, the right people, and the capacity to deliver at the level this project demands? And is this a client we can work well with? Is there chemistry there? On projects of this scale, challenges are inevitable, and you need to know that when they come up, the partnership is strong enough to work through them productively.

Something I talk about a lot around here is seeing the forest through the trees. Not every issue deserves the same level of attention. I've been in meetings where the entire team is assembled to discuss a problem and by the time we're done, the cost of having everyone in that room exceeded the cost of the problem itself. The lesson there is simple — build in the right contingencies so that small issues can be resolved without pulling everyone off what they're doing.

I also believe in trusting the people around me. These projects have way too much going on for anyone to micromanage. When you've assembled the right team, the best thing you can do is empower them to do their jobs and get out of the way.

And the last piece is follow-through. Are you doing what you said you were going to do? These projects become personal. They impact real communities, and you spend years of your life working on them.

And honestly, through all of it, I think the process should be fun. These projects are high stakes for everyone involved. We don't have 300 projects where we can cherry pick the ones that went well. So the pressure is always there. But that's exactly why the experience along the way matters. When we can get the group together and bring a little humor into the work, that stuff makes a difference. If you can't enjoy the work with the people you're doing it with, something's off.

Q: Tell us about a project that's been especially meaningful to you.

Brian: Howard County is the one I always come back to. It's the county right next to where I live in Maryland, and they were considering a new courthouse and exploring alternative delivery options. It was the county's largest infrastructure project and their first public-private partnership, so the stakes were high for everyone involved from the very beginning.

When the procurement launched, it was a highly competitive process and we were fortunate to be selected. From the beginning, our team was fully committed — we invested in the project in every sense of the word, and six years later, that commitment paid off for everyone involved.

I served as CEO of the project company from 2018 all the way through July of 2024, leading the team through design, construction, COVID, and three years of post-delivery operations. Those three years of operations were honestly the most instructive of my career. I learned more in that phase about what it means to be a developer than in all my previous years combined.

When COVID hit about six months into construction, we had every reason to slow down. But the whole team rallied — the county, our partners, everyone involved made it a priority to keep this project moving forward. An independent consultant who was tracking several major projects at the time found that ours was the only one that stayed on time and on budget through the entire pandemic. We delivered a day early.

The night that really sticks with me, though, was in New York at the P3 Awards. The project won Best Social Infrastructure Project and Best Financial Structure. We won Developer of the Year. And Howard County won Silver for Government Agency of the Year, competing against organizations from around the world. The county team came up with us to the ceremony, and everyone was just ecstatic. Someone from their side said, half joking, we're going to need a trophy case. They went back and built one, and for a while it held only the awards from our project.

Seeing a client that proud of what we built together is the best feeling in this business. And for me, that's always been the real measure of whether we got it right.

Q: When you look across the industry, where do you see projects run into the most trouble?

Brian: One of the most common challenges I see is when the goals and outcomes aren't fully defined before a project goes to market. It's more common than you'd think, and it's understandable given the nature of these projects. But it's hard to set a project up for success when the foundation is still being figured out while the process is already moving. That's why we put so much emphasis on getting that clarity early, it makes everything that follows so much stronger. Our most successful projects have consistently been the ones where we had the opportunity to be part of those early conversations before the client started committing to a path.

Something else I feel strongly about is having decision-makers in the room. You solve problems so much faster when the people who can actually make a call are present and engaged. 

And the other thing I'll say is that we have to think every day as developers about what happens after delivery. If we're not thinking all the time about how whatever we're doing is helping the end user, then we're not doing our job.

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

Brian: Honestly, every day is different. Right now we're waiting to hear on a couple of projects, and I'm excited about both of them. That never goes away. But what really keeps me going is the people. Every project brings a new team together, and those relationships become real. I talk every couple days with our outreach consultant on a project we're pursuing in Jacksonville. She feels like family at this point. And I don't want to lose the project partly because I don't want to stop working with these people. That's the thing about what we do — the teams you build along the way become as meaningful as the projects themselves.

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Brian Dugan is a partner at Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, where he leads complex civic development projects including the Howard County Courthouse and the Garden Grove Civic Center Revitalization. He has spent over 25 years in development and over a decade at Edgemoor.