Fairfax County was growing fast and its schools couldn’t keep up. Families faced overcrowded classrooms and long commutes to distant campuses. The county needed a new middle and high school quickly, but its traditional funding plan scheduled construction nearly a decade into the future. 

 

Edgemoor proposed a creative solution: a public private partnership that would accelerate delivery without raising taxes or delaying other projects. By helping the county monetize underused land and structuring a financing plan around future revenues, we enabled construction to begin immediately — bringing the 386,000-square-foot school to life five years ahead of schedule. 

 

The result was more than a new campus; it was a model for how coordinated efforts can turn an urgent need into a long-term resource. Today, South County Secondary continues to serve the district as a reliable community asset.

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Built on the site of the former Lorton Reformatory as part of the broader Laurel Hill redevelopment, the campus represented the first time Fairfax County Public Schools had opened a new secondary school in more than three decades. Today, South County High School serves over 2,000 students from Lorton, Laurel Hill, Crosspointe, Newington, and the surrounding communities, and remains a central institution in the southeastern part of the county. The school now sits alongside the Laurel Hill Golf Club and a 55-and-over residential community, all of it part of a coordinated redevelopment that has transformed underutilized public land into a thriving part of Fairfax County.